Trump voters are treated with kid gloves in this unsatisfying doc. About Our Ads Sitemap | Ford also co-edited the film with Rose Corr, and the pacing is sharp. Moore's confrontational approach does have its limitations, but Stern, by contrast, asks too many softball questions. Despite these frustrating omissions, American Chaos is a well made film. What tangible, credible alternative did he offer to Clinton? It begins arrestingly, with newsreel footage of all the country's 20th century presidential campaigns. Stephen Farber Soul! Stern's melancholy on election night in 2016 is genuinely affecting, but despite some incisive footage en route to the depressing conclusion, the film ultimately leaves us feeling that the director has become a little too close to his subjects to probe as deeply as our national chaos requires. The Hollywood Reporter is part of MRC Media and Info, a division of MRC. Whatever your takeaway, though, it'll be hard to shake the feeling that "American Chaos" is badly in need of refinement, a structure, or another draft or two, or at least some tough notes demanding to know what the point of the exercise is supposed to be. Throughout the film, we always feel ahead — way ahead — of the narrator, even if the movie does contain a certain sense of dread for Trump detractors, as the inevitability of the election draws closer. Privacy | He does challenge one woman who talks about voter fraud without any evidence, yet when a West Virginia man claims that Hillary Clinton might deserve the death penalty for committing treason, Stern looks dismayed but remains silent. There's not much rhyme or reason to when Stern decides to intervene and become more active and when he sits back and strokes his chin and smiles warmly. Michael Moore’s documentary about Donald Trump will be hitting theaters soon, but another documentary about the startling Trump election arrives even earlier. [Stern] comes across as a sincere presence who is almost too polite and doesn’t challenge some interviewees who make wildly inaccurate and sometimes racist assertions based on ignorant viewpoints. But that would have required additional work. This is part of a slight detour that's concerned with industrial change's effect on politics and rhetoric. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The director's goal with this film was to follow the advice of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (quoted by Obama in his farewell address in Chicago), who told his children that you can never really understand someone until you stand in his shoes. Terms of Use | He treats us to a theory that in every presidential race since the 1950s, the more charismatic candidate that voters "want to have a beer with" has won, even though by his own admission not every race really proves that point; 1972 is at best a tossup, and 2000 doesn't really fit any template, and in general, this kind of thing is better left to Cliff Clavin. and A Most Beautiful Thing Among Nominees at Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. Check box if your review contains spoilers, For six months before the election, director Jim Stern traveled red states asking about Donald Trump's appeal, and why voters were untroubled by things he had said and done. The people interviewed speak about the economic reasons for supporting Trump, but the darker passions underlying their enthusiasm are skimmed over by the director. Music: Vincent Leslie Jones. Editors: Rose Corr, Kevin Ford Once Fahrenheit 11/9 opens, this warmhearted film will be quickly forgotten. Stern visits the border, where white Americans (and a couple of Mexican-Americans) compare undocumented immigrants to foreign invaders. What he learned was a lesson in the central differences dividing America and the cultural divide that is tearing apart our democracy today. © 2020 The Hollywood Reporter TWITTER Please enter your birth date to watch this video: You are not allowed to view this material at this time. The result is that Stern seems to give a forum to a lot of ignorant people without fully exposing their prejudices. Were there warning signs that everyone missed? The Mandalorian Faces Lies and Krykna in Chapter 10: The Passenger, Miles Morales Swings Players into the Future of Gaming, Lasting Fright: The Staying Power of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Mr. the Democrats and the Republicans are the political equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoys, feuding just to be feuding, or something. Stern, a theater and film producer, comes from a liberal family, as he tells us early on; his brother was one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers on the environment. [Sony Pictures Classics]. Trump's key advisers, like Steve Bannon, are never mentioned at all. Executive producer: Eleanor Nett While an argument can be made for it being either “too late” or “too soon,” James D. Stern’s American Chaos nevertheless serves as a handy look back on the poll-defying perfect storm that cleared Donald Trump’s path to the White House. Stern criticizes Clinton for her reference to Trump partisans as "deplorables," which was indeed a major political gaffe, but the director never acknowledges that there was a kernel of truth in her characterization. Director-screenwriter: James D. Stern Production company: Endgame Entertainment Director of photography: Kevin Ford If the film is a testament to anything, it’s Stern’s laziness. EMAIL ME. Rated R by Some are explicit, others implied, and still others are probably imagined by this particular viewer out of frustration with a movie that can't seem to figure out what it is. Was anyone involved with the process, or anyone in the voting population, truly operating from a detached, rational perspective, or has the entire country devolved into mindless tribalism? More so than most election year postmortems, this one will inspire subjective and admittedly unreliable takeaways, with some viewers feeling that Stern doesn't do a good enough job of interrogating the talking points of Trump voters, and others feeling that he talks too much as it is and is just doing a credible impersonation of an impartial guide when he's actually coming from a deeply partisan place. It turns out Trump supporters, “in their own words,” is the most damning portrait of them imaginable. The biggest gap in the film is the failure to address the racism that motivated a lot of Trump supporters, even if they were not willing to acknowledge it. Ultimately, American Chaos isn’t bad, it’s just kind of too late to do any real good. How did we get here? “Chaos” might have been better had the filmmaker revisited his interview subjects now that we are deep into Trump’s presidency. This movie is alright with flaws yes but keeps you in and the movie is kind of boring in some ways and it slows down to a crawl but its still is alright. For the most part, "American Chaos" traffics in the same imagery, locations and political reportage cliches that draw eye-rolls when encountered in the pages of the New York Times: the jes' folks, nearly always white and usually middle-aged or elderly, holding court in diners and bars in towns where the milk train don't stop no more, etc. | Cookie Settings. Excerpts from a black-and-white TV show from the '50s that centered on a con man named Trump might be a bit forced, but they do add some welcome humor. One person interviewed claims that Islam is not a "real" religion, but too many of the others are never questioned about the deep-seated prejudices that probably inflamed their embrace of a candidate who encouraged xenophobia and white supremacy. Stern visits the border, where white Americans (and a … for some language including sexual references. American Chaos, directed by James D. Stern, takes a different approach to the unexpected turn of events. There are visits to coal mines that haven't been active in years and now function mainly as museums of obsolete industrial technology. Directed by Jim Stern ("Every Little Step"), it's an earnest but unformed movie that tries to offer a snapshot of the United States of America throughout 2016. To present an alternative point of view, Stern interviews a few professors (mainly from UCLA) who discuss climate change, racism and sexism from a more progressive perspective. The story follows the presidential election from the primary season through the eventual contest between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the surprise victor and probably the closest thing to a primary author of the aforementioned chaos. Sometimes Stern sees fit to correct the more egregious or bewildering statements of Trump voters on the spot. These are the films from 2020 (and early 2021) that have the best chance... Get a list of the best movie and TV titles recently added (and coming... We rank the 25 best-reviewed horror films of the 2010s. Despite these frustrating omissions, American Chaos is a well made film. As an effort at understanding the opposition (Stern tells us straight-out that he's a Chicago Democrat who grew up idolizing Robert Kennedy) it deserves a B for effort, if you're in a charitable frame of mind. But it could be argued his gentle, respectful style of an effective tool to get his subjects to reveal their true selves. It doesn’t take a hectoring Michael Moore or patronizing Dinesh D’Souza to properly account for “what happened” and “who these people are, and why” they supported Donald Trump. To delve into the tycoon's unpredictable rise, Stern traveled around the country beginning in the spring of 2016 to interview Trump supporters and try to comprehend their passionate devotion to a completely unqualified candidate. What qualities did Trump voters see in their candidate that were legitimate, and what qualities did their project on him wrongly, for their own, possibly inexplicable reasons? Stern, who does his best impression of an avuncular pot-stirring Everyman/Host, travels the country posing and eliciting these questions and more. He goes to Matewan, West Virginia, the better to fluff up a muddled thesis that (I guess?) But it's disorganized and erratic, jumping from thesis to thesis and location to location, sometimes seeming to pride itself on adopting a nonjudgmental "I'm just listening" attitude, other times recoiling in disbelief and outrage when, say, a Trump voter suggests that a hypothetical president-to-be (in this case, Clinton) has the power to simply abolish the Second Amendment of the Constitution immediately after taking office, and strongly implies that killing her with a firearm is an acceptable answer to his ignorance-stoked fears. Most of the people he interviews are older white people, though there is also one older Cuban immigrant who came to the States in the 1950s and rails against illegal immigration. Music title data, credits, and images provided by, Movie title data, credits, and poster art provided by. Unlike the combative, sarcastic Moore, Stern is an engaging presence on camera, and he tries to ingratiate himself with his interview subjects.