The Brink

Director: Alison Klayman
Year Released: 2019
Rating: 3.0

Klayman trails controversial banker, Breitbart executive and "political strategist" Stephen K. Bannon - who served as strategist for Emperor Trump before Trump had his typical mood swing and canned him - as he travels all over the world meeting with wealthy types and right-leaning politicians "making deals" to push what his platform of "economic nationalism," which is his way of stopping immigration - fittingly, the film starts with Bannon praising Nazi architecture (he's a big fan).  One would wonder why someone like Bannon would allow any documentarians to interview him, but it could come down to: he doesn't care if the coverage of him is positive or negative ("all press is good press"), he thinks he's smarter than everyone else or maybe he feels that if he 'shows the audience' that behind the scenes he's an "ordinary guy" he will seem less threatening (Klayman herself, in an interview, invoked Arendt's "banality of evil").  He doesn't even mind being mocked: at an event in Toronto, the audience laughed at many of his statements, and afterwards admitted to a former colleague at Goldman Sachs he needed to do more appearances just like that one.  He's a completely odious character, and it's always good to see when he's losing the battle against societal progress.  One thing Klayman didn't mention (and with good reason): why was there acid in the jacuzzi in his Florida residence?  Or was that the residue from all those Red Bulls and hate sweat?