Movie Poster

This is not about electing me to Congress, this is about electing us to Congress. That’s what I have to communicate.

# Review

This film documents the rise of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, showing the 2018 primary campaigns of four candidates, two of whom (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush) are currently serving in Congress. During the 2018 primaries, only AOC managed to win her riding.

I would like to preface that I disagree with many of the policies proposed by the progressives, namely Modern Monetary Theory, their broad anti-policing stance, and their focus on wealth inequality instead of poverty. Despite this, I admire the drive and commitment of the women portrayed in this film to fight for what they believe in. It was also interesting to see firsthand how the moderate democrats have gotten complacent after winning for decades in their ridings; one particular example is AOC’s opponent, Joe Crowley, who the film portrays as being out of touch with public opinion, using tactics such as hiring consultants to make poorly designed pamphlets and proposing a public debate in which he gave AOC a free platform. AOC, as well as other politicians within the progressive movement, understand that populism relies on emotions not reason; appealing to pathos as opposed to logos has helped them win much support.

As for the actual film, it’s clear that the documentary is aiming to paint the progressive movement in a positive light. The entire film felt like a long political ad, with emotionally-charged music and sound bites for each of the candidates. Whether it’s because her campaign was more accessible or because she was the only candidate out of the four who won, the film focuses greatly on AOC; I would’ve liked to see more of the campaigns of the other candidates as well. My biggest gripe with the documentary, however, is the lack of a narrative arc; there was just a lot of B-roll and different clips from each of the campaigns. The movie felt like a compilation of various shorter Youtube videos as opposed to a coherent story with a central plotline and character arcs.

# Conclusion

A bit disorganized, but an interesting look at the rise of the progressive Democrat wing.

# Overall rating: 7.0

What does the rating mean?