25 Films to Help Understand the US Today

For The Guardian, the film critic Guy Lodge has complied a list of 25 films that “shed light on the US under Trump”. From the introduction by filmmaker Alex Gibney:

This is a dire moment in the US. It’s a moment where there’s an opportunity for people with a lot of money to rip apart all of the guidelines enacted by the Roosevelt administration, way back in the day, to guard against the brutality of unfettered capitalism. Capitalists like to have all the power that they want, whenever they want it. They’re not much interested in democracy either, it turns out. Nor, apparently, the rule of law. The government is not the solution — it’s the problem. And now a vengeful president who just wanted a get-out-of-jail-free card is going to punish his enemies and show us all how to destroy the American administrative state by using the big stick of Elon Musk’s chequebook.

Here are a few of the films and their trailers — you can check out the article for the rest.

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016):

Election (Alexander Payne, 1999):

White Noise (Daniel Lombroso, 2020) {Note: this is not the DeLillo adaptation}:

American Factory (Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, 2019):

I’m curious…what films would you add to the list?

Tags: 2025 Coup · Alex Gibney · Donald Trump · Guy Lodge · lists · movies · politics

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