Knock Down the House

One of the Sundance favorites in January about @aoc, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, newest and youngest Congresswoman from New York.  The Justice Project recruited new candidates to run in the 2018 elections and this documentary filmmaker Rachel Lears followed around 4 of them, Amy Vilela of Nevada, Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia, Cori Bush of St. Louis and AOC.

One of the benefits of documentary filmmaking is the ability to edit the story to build the arc of exactly what happened.  So if there is success, we see the buildup to success and if there is failure, we see the warning signs.

The New York campaigning reminded me a lot of Weiner which I saw some years ago. Since he lost, no one ever saw that film.  But since AOC is a household name now, Netflix paid $10 million for this film.

AOC comes off as a real natural here and there's certainly a hero buildup after we know of her success.  Her opponent Joe Crowley certainly comes across as a schlub.  But really we are putty in the hands of this fine filmaker.

***** Highest rating