Popular reviews

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★½ 20

  Obama's production company owns American Factory. Consider me sceptical of the film's message about how workers have been screwed under the current global economic system. Obama had 8 years to fix some of these problems and did not. In fact, things got worse, and what little good he did has been undone by Trump's even worse policies.

  *sigh* I could discuss the politics of this situation a lot, but I don't have the energy for it right now. Because as a society we keep on supporting leaders who do the most damage. Because the workers of the world are being crushed and my post will make no difference. Because honestly I don't even know what to think, I just know…

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  Review by Johann Rucker ★★★★½

  Saw it was produced by the Obama's production company, and was immediately turned off... I was anticipating a pretty neoliberal/surface-level observation on labor rights, without much insight into what actually goes into worker solidarity, union-busting, etc. Yet again, my initial biases proved incorrect and I'm ashamed at myself.

  AMERICAN FACTORY is bout it bout it.

  There's a scene towards the end of the film in which upper-level management types patrol the factory floor, remarking to each other in Mandarin about how certain employees will be gone after a bit of time, often times pointing directly at them and showing no remorse about it. They are within walking distance of the soon-to-be-terminated employees and these poor people are none the wiser.…

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  Review by 🌻 lindsay 🌻 ★★★½ 4

  All this documentary did was reenforce how much I hate rich people and the system they’ve created to keep people poor and use them for every bit of labor they can get out of them. The culture clash ideas in this documentary were pretty interesting and I liked learning about both sides. 

  Best part is when the Chinese worker and the American worker were trying to spell Wheaties and they were both wrong but the American was super condescending about how he was right lmao

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★½ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  "The labor movement built America." -Fred Strahorn

  The documentary shows what happens when Fuyao, a Chinese company, takes over a former GM plant. It mainly shows the workers that are trying to unionize and the bosses that oppose it. It is a good documentary, showing the result of businessmen trying to be efficient and cutting corners to raise profits, while harming the average hard-working American.

  One woman (Jill) was fired for being pro-union and for operating her machinery in a safe manner and refusing to carry an unsafe amount on her forklift that might harm someone. We're also introduced to Bobby, a man who also worked on GM for several years and never had a workplace injury until working for…

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  Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★½ 1

  There’s no narration to tell you what to think about Chinese investment in American factories or aggressively anti-union activities, but the film is unambiguous about its perspective. Fuyao represents an impersonal, transnational capitalism that is even more ruthless than our homegrown variety, and unions represent the only opportunity for workers to challenge capital and reclaim a modicum of decency.

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 2

  This is less of a documentary or commentary on the industrial world of the United States and more of a portrait of two distinct cultures that in many ways cannot be much different from each other, clashing together.

  Audience members are shown right off the bat the conflicts that will arise throughout the documentary like the abusive work system prevalent in China and the more conventional 8-hour workday majority of people are used to, with benefits like vacations we take for granted. There are also differences between the way one group lacks a voice, how they must follow the rules as if they were modern slaves, and dealing with the way this interacts with social institutions like Unions. Additionally, you…

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  Review by eminnick ★★½ 1

  High point of this film is a bunch of overweight middle aged white men earnestly performing the YMCA for Chinese factory executives.

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  Review by {Todd} ★★★½

  "We're one planet...divided...but one people (shakes head)" - Drunk Guy,

  I didn't know people could make money as a "union avoidance counselor," man we are so screwed.

  This is a fantastic documentary on the intersection of culture and work. When a Chinese company buys an American factory and attempts to assimilate the American workers and bust union efforts things get fucked. The culture clash is fascinating to watch and made me reflect on the American values that I love and those I despise. It's also interesting to see that China is filled with just as many assholes as we have in the States. This is a good documentary but I personally wish that the story had been contextualized with more graphics or text discussing the American economy but that's just a personal preference.

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  Review by urban_sombrero ★★★★

  Interesting and true-to-form, I think, that people can watch this and come away with the take that "Americans are lazy". This fly-on-the-wall documentary observes as the Chinese car glass manufacturer Fuyao reopens an abandoned General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio. What is initially hailed as a bit of international partnership and investment in "American ingenuity" and what-not gradually morphs into a story about cultures clashing, labor being redefined in a globalized economy and, most interesting, a stark contrast in what work represents in China and in America. There's a brilliant bit in the middle where some of the American workers are brought to China to observe a profitable Fuyao plant. The Americans walk in to a meeting clad in jeans…

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  Review by Brian Tallerico ★★★★

  Workers of the world unite! (Also, if they’re reading, welcome Chinese overlords!)

  Strong stuff. Really well edited with a strong visual sense too. One of 2019’s best docs.

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  Review by Ryan Daniel ★★★½

  “The most important thing is not how much money we earn, but how this will change Americans’ views of the Chinese, and towards China.”

  I had to watch this for a class in which we basically watch a movie, and then have someone from the movie come in and do a short interview and Q&A. The positive side of doing this on Zoom is that it’s easier to get people that would otherwise never come in if it was in person. For this film, the directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert are videoing in so that should be cool.

  Seeing the culture divide between the US and China is pretty crazy. Very interesting look on the inside of an American factory run by a Chinese company, and it’s pretty much as divisive as you’d think.

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  Review by momalley ★★½ 4

  American Factory has a lot of really good raw material about the fresh evils of multi-national corporations and the ways in which labor gets exploited by global capitalism. Its central fight for unionization at the Fuyao factory in Dayton, Ohio, is rousing and vital. All of that is why I've given American Factory anything close to a positive rating. But the rest... woof. The fact that this movie frames the whole conflict of the situation as some sort of American vs. Chinese clash is reprehensible and grossly nationalist, using China as a scapegoat for the problems of capitalism writ large while aggrandizing this weird fantasy narrative of unions and labor rights being somehow a key part of what makes America…