2016 Directed by Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg
Documentary featuring a jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes look at the attempted comeback of Anthony Weiner in 2013 as he mounts a campaign for New York City mayor in the wake of his sexting scandal. Featuring unfettered access to the candidate and his campaign.
68/100
Clearly, Huma Abedin's choice to remain primarily a background presence here was strategic (vis-à-vis her own career and Clinton's, not her husband's). Kriegman and Steinberg use that constraint deftly, however, and I wish they'd gone even further in positioning her as Weiner's antithesis, as all of the film's best moments involve what are essentially silent screams. Thing is, I find that I now like the guy considerably more than I would ever have guessed from the way these scandals were covered in the media. He's a self-destructive moron when it comes to sex, but so is roughly half the planet (conservative estimate), and I tend not to place a whole lot of public-trust weight on lies that politicians tell…
one day i'll grow up and get over how truly unfortunate a name this dude has but today is not that day
Hardly just an opportunistic snapshot of a celebrity's public implosion, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's inside look at the spectacular failure of Anthony Weiner's 2013 mayoral campaign in New York is one of the best documentaries ever made about a political scandal. A passionate fighter for the middle class who nuked his career by accidentally tweeting a selfie of his bulge, the indefatigable Weiner is nothing less than a true American tragedy — but this hilarious and humbling portrait rightly sees him as so much more. At once a portrait of media sensationalism, a marriage under fire, and of a city that felt betrayed by its best hope, the movie is so unsparing that when they finally ask Weiner why he let them film him, the disgraced ex-congressman can only shrug.
Read more: www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/10-best-movies-we-saw-at-sundance-2016-20160129#ixzz3ylb1dnTr
What are the fucking odds that someone named Anthony Weiner would be involved in a sexting scandal (several fucking times)
It’s flabbergasting that this documentary is real. I mean, Anthony Weiner seems like a George Saunders character. In 100 years, it’s completely likely that Weiner will be the sole vessel for which future generations seek to understand this era: his hubris and stupidity; his digital illiteracy; the way in which he is inextricably tethered to the media and 24-hour news cycle; but most of all his unrelenting penchant for self-destruction, a real-life groundhog day for getting caught sexting, even as he articulates, phone in hand—always scrolling and consuming—his inability to move beyond these flaws as a human.
I’ve never seen a documentary like this before and I probably won’t ever again, I feel like it’s truly a one of a kind watch. The absurdity of the whole situation, from the unfortunate last name of the films central subject, through to the sheer ridiculousness of his initial attempt at self-destruction, does not appear to be lost on anyone in this movie from the get (perhaps except for Weiner himself). Yet, someway or somehow, the farcical meter seems to only increase as this story unfolds.
Such a good documentary. Brimming with honesty, even though it's about the most dishonest corner of humanity, politics.
Best political doc of the 21st century. Watch a narcissist's downfall in real time.
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