Review of Mad As Hell (2014) by Chris G — 11 Feb 2015

Mostly a good film. Not sure why the critics seem to be so down on it.

Things I enjoyed about the film: The people portrayed seem honest to me and aren't cherry picking commentary to support an agenda. It's mostly about one person, Cenk Uygur who founded the news show. However, it also delves enough into the other people that work on the show and how various decisions he made affected them as well. You feel the passion from the people in the film and their doubts. Uygur is always going forward and the film makes you wonder at times if he's going too fast to meet his goals. I like this in the documentary. It's not all shaking hands and kissing babies and everyone is great all the time (see: Mitt). Uygur's drive is so infectious you can't help but pull for him even if you don't necessarily agree with all of his opinions.

Things I didn't like: I would like to have seen more from what drove him to move into media from law more than just that he didn't like his job. It's a major change and obviously must have been a passion of his but the film doesn't answer to my satisfaction where it came from.

I believe critics perhaps don't care for the film as much due to the storyline not really ending in the film. There's no defined destruction and revival point, just a slow and constant grind forward. Determination might be harder to critique than a standard linear model.

Bottom line: Interesting story, passionate people, insight into mainstream TV news you might not now about. I'd say worth the price of admission.