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…
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
one day i'll grow up and get over how truly unfortunate a name this dude has but today is not that day
What are the fucking odds that someone named Anthony Weiner would be involved in a sexting scandal (several fucking times)
Uncomfortable but digestible. I'd say this Weiner is less threatening than Tickled.
It's interesting to see how one's political career is ruined by a big mistake like sextexting and still the failure of not learning the lesson by doing it again. This was a good documentary letting us see the behind the scenes we normally don't get to see.
"Weiner" now feels like a footnote to the real story in the wake of Hilary's disastrous election race, Anthony's disgraceful sexting of a minor and Huma's long overdue filing for divorce in May of this year. I demand a sequel!
Incredibly fascinating, to quote the cameraman: "Why are you letting me film this?"
I still dont get why Weiner let them document his personal slow moving train wreck. One of the strangest thing about watching this is that he seems like he actually would be a good mayor and politician, he's just a disaster as a person. It's at times a hilarious movie about a personal tragedy. It still really made me feel for Huma Abedin (who looks like her soul is dying through most of the film) and everyone around Weiner.
both easy and agonizing to watch. Taps into all of the worst parts of America's fascination with political scandal and treats it with an unusually neutral lens.
despite being impossible to sympathize with in a broad sense, Weiner is a great subject for something like this. He's so used to the cameras surrounding him at all times that his screen presence never feels performative. His tragedy is real. His inability to ever get ahead of his own self-engineered disaster is relatable, even.
this is also beautifully shot. Spur of the moment photography is never easy, and this film makes it look easy.
a shame we can't get compelling documentaries like this every year.
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