[DOCUMENTARY] Weiner (2016) by Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg

"Why did you let me shoot this?" an offscreen voice asks Weiner. Anthony Weiner can only muster a disheartened sigh and seems to be asking himself the same question.

The life of publicity is not easy, and it doesn't get any easier by sending pictures of your own erection to people who never asked for it. That this would be reason to put the political career on the shelf is probably a feeling shared by most people - but not by Congressman Anthony Weiner. In 2013, two years after his resignation, he instead takes aim at the mayoral election in New York, and allows a camera crew to follow and immortalize what he hopes to be his political resurrection.

The journey we are invited on is fascinating for mainly one reasons. It's the notorious attraction to misfortune - which is why we find it so hard to look away when something really disastrous happens - that makes itself felt. The fact that the film workers are allowed to be so up-close to the life of the Weiner spouses, offers a rare glimpse into the political game at the absolute top level. The Clinton's, Bill as a wedding officiant and Hillary as Huma Weiner's boss, have direct influence on the course of events and their behavior creates a wonderfully ironic twist to the story.

Soon enough, disaster strikes again. Early in the film it becomes clear that our anti-hero doesn't seem to have learned his lesson, and the momentum the campaign succeeded in building up, fueled by an appeal to the idea to forgive and move on, is graveled in an instant. New indecent images. And sexting with a heavily tattooed stripper that goes public. It's almost painful to witness the anguish that his colleagues and wife suffer. Nobody can understand or explain the extent of Anthony Weiner's narcissism and self-harm. What follows is a calculating - some would even call it cynical - game to minimize the harm and rebuild trust. The kids and the wife are used as political props to win the sympathies in the most transparent manner possible. The shame that most of us would have experienced instinctively seems to be completely absent.

The documentary turns into pure comedy when one of the women who chatted with Weiner shows up at his election party to capitalize on her five minutes of sensational fame. Weiner runs like a frightened animal through a back door along with his team to avoid another disaster.

The film Weiner is both exemplary and unique - exemplary in the sense that here there's no politics at all, but only tactics, maneuvering and crisis management. And unique in that we can actually monitor how a scandal - the second one - develops and explodes both from without and within.

Interviews with employees, volunteers and the protagonists themselves are interwoven with with campaign materials and the reactions of the people and especially the media. Sometimes the film feels like a long study in how not to handle a crisis. Everything revolves around the struggle to regain control, or the privilege to formulate the problem.

Thankfully, it's neither lecturing, nor moralizing; it rather poses thought-provoking questions about what we expect from our elected so called representatives. Josh Kriegman's and Elyse Steinberg's film is a very intimate story and we are offered a good mix of heart and cynicism. As a viewers you sometimes even sympathize with Anthony Weiner. The overall result is as much a tragedy as a black farce.

—  SteemSwede