Review of Weiner (2016) by Dave C — 26 Aug 2016

Holy crap this film was intense. I'm not sure I've ever seen something quite like it. Familiar with the public view of the Weiner scandal, this film takes us behind the scenes (documented by an employee of Weiner's campaign) of the political monster.

It's hard not to respect Weiner's willingness to invite this sort of invasive process, which is perhaps a part of what he desires to expose himself: the harshness and relentless nature of media coverage. The most compelling part of this documentary is that it remains easy to believe that, somewhere and somehow, Anthony honestly believed that he was setting out to document a redemptive story. This is exactly how the narrative starts out in a sort of linear, reclaiming of his political career fashion. It's far from how the story turns out.

I think the public at large more or less knows the surface story. It is the backroom stuff that is far more disturbing. But even more than that, it would be hard to miss the key player in all of this, Anthony's wife Huma. The tension that she exudes through this whole process is fascinating, troubling and revealing. We move from seeing her as the victim, to watching the conflicting emotions (which largely come as the camera lingers on her facial expressions) of her own political ambitions. It is hard to know where to categorize her in all of this. Certainly if there is a victim in all of this it would be her, but it becomes clear that she doesn't fully embrace any emotional response that might categorize her as a victim. Underneath the turmoil, which obviously haunts her personally, is someone intent on using it for her own ambitions as well.

Here in lies the power of Weiner. It is nearly impossible to categorize and impossible to nail down. There are no clear hero's and villains, and the hero's and villains change places seemingly at the drop of a dime. It feels fair to say the media, the political machine and Weiner himself comes across as hard to fathom, and it is Huma herself who represents, in a mysterious and mind-boggling way, the most grounded character in the entire thing.