I think he's a fantastic politician
OK - so I enjoyed doing Empire's Top 100 Movies of This Century and I also enjoyed The Guardian's Top 50 Albums of 2020, so when I saw they also did a Top 50 Movies of 2020, I thought "what's the worst that can happen?". I suspect it might take me slightly longer than the album list to work through though.
#50 : Boys State
This eye-opening film looks at a role-play event to teach kids how politics works, organised by the American Legion. Here the Texas version is scrutinised, with debates and power struggles reaching a crescendo in a mock election.
A film I'd never even heard of (and this is going to be a common theme over the next few films at least). So what have we got here? A load of boys from Texas competing in a mock election - that feels like it could work out pretty badly indeed. I couldn't help but feel there were going to be some pleasant characters and some exceedingly unpleasant, supremely ambitious characters - and I only needed one guess as to who would be trampling all over who. But, I was also expecting to learn stuff about the US political system which isn't something I know anything about.
It's a fascinating set-up - the American Legion (whoever they are) organise an intensive week where A LOT (1000) of 17 year old boys (they also run a girl's session - and this is repeated in all the US states) run mock elections representing various levels of the US political system. The boys have to interview to get onto the week and they are all scarily knowledgeable and committed (or the ones they show us are anyway). And, one suspects, mostly very rich - it's not exactly a wide cross section of US teenage life (and the film also makes them appear more multi-cultural than I suspect they actually are). But boy, are they intense - super, super intense. The stuff of nightmares - at first viewing at least.
Intriguingly, they are randomly split into two parties - Federalists and Nationalists - but they have no idea when they start what the parties actually stand for, which makes for some interesting discussions and machinations. It's somewhat scary how banning abortion and gun rights are hugely popular with the vocal minority, but there are hints that decency will shine through. But - plot twist - the candidate expressing the most conservative views turns out to be a thoroughly decent, pro-choice guy simply playing a role in order to get elected. But has he gone too far? Well, that would be telling now, wouldn't it...
And then we cut to the talent show, which is a slightly jarring mix but there are undoubtedly some very talented individuals there - and entirely human as well, as opposed to being simply political robots, which I guess is the reason for its inclusion.
And then we're back to the final election day - Federalists vs Nationalists. And the scheming and dirty tricks on display are impressive, particularly considering how little is actually at stake - you can only begin to imagine how bad things must get when actual power and money is involved. It all plays out very intriguingly and you end up really caring about who's going to win - and it's obvious they do as well. There is a lovely speech afterwards from the loser - "I'm not crying because I lost, I'm crying because everyone keeps coming up to me, hugging me and telling me they love me". But the best line comes from my man René - "I don't hate the man - never will. I think he's a fantastic politician. But I don't think a fantastic politician is a compliment either". It also has a fantastic "what they did next" ending - it won't be the last we hear of some of those people, I suspect.
So, did I learn anything about US politics? Well, not a lot actually - but I don't feel the film suffers for that because its aiming to be educational more about human nature than the intricacies of their political system. The one thing I did take away is the amount of power that lies behind the throne - and I can 100% believe that's true. It's also interesting how much the smallest perceptions can sway people's opinions and it very reasonably makes the point that a recent US president may have used very similar tactics to slightly more major effect.
I generally love documentaries like this when simply watching them at face value and then it suddenly dawns on me how much time they must have spent filming and interviewing characters who fail at the first hurdle, turn out to be incredibly dull or just don't have the required outcome for the film and my love for them just increases tenfold - they are obviously a huge undertaking and the skill involved in making them into a compelling story must be immense (and something I'm really not able to get my head around). This film reminded me of Spellbound which is an utterly charming documentary and well worth checking out if you've not seen it - and the same applies to this film, which I enjoyed way more than I was expecting to. If you're partial to a documentary on a slice of life you're not entirely famliar or are just interested in human nature, then I can thoroughly recommend this film. And you know what - I reckon the kids are alright!
At the time of writing, the film is available on Apple TV+ - so if you're one of the three people out there who subscribe to that particular streaming service, there are far worse ways you could spend a couple of hours of your time.
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