Boys State

Another documentary on Apple TV was "Boys State" about a Texas Government themed Summer camp (for the want of a better term) that seems so alien to me, from the other side of the Atlantic and was in not quite equal parts both depressing and optimistic.

A thousand boys, from across Texas come together with the aim of building a representative Government. This involves various elections for the roles and organisational work as the boys have been split into two arbitrary teams. They then "vote" on state leadership. The documentary follows several key characters who make up the campaigns.

Its important to try and distinguish the documentary itself from the subject matter. In which case directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss did a great job in picking some of the key characters in this early on and staying with them as they went through their journey. The subjects open up to the camera about their true feelings, so they can be juxtaposed with their actions. There can be issues of bias, with a documentary and you never really know for sure, but here it feels like the stories natural heroes and villains come from their actions and not who they were before.

Turning to the subject matter, it's depressing how quickly the young men in this film abandon any thought of achievement, or betterment of the state (however hypothetical) in favour of "winning". How rapidly compromise and debate is cast aside for memes and racism, and how successful they can be. Conviction in your beliefs can be a wonderful trait, but there's something scary and sad about the way some of these kids speak about their opinions, given their relatively little life experience. There are moments of hope though, mostly revolving around Stephen Garza, a second-generation Mexican American who speaks to the difficult audience about immigration issues and gun control and wins some consensus and support.

Rather than wanting to change the world, it appears the majority of these kids just want to know how to beat it. It's not the documentaries fault, but it is depressing.

Out of fairness to the documentarian I think this deserves an 8, because it is a very well-made documentary but personally, I found it impossible to watch. Some of these boys (and I know this is Texas, a very macho/conservative leaning state) make me think "this is what's wrong with today's GOP". The boys who showed so much machismo seemed to fare much better than the low key, kinder & simply, from my perspective, nicer boys. I'm sure you can tell by now that I am a liberal minded individual (and am therefore glad that there are no comments available on this review) & I cannot say that it's a not a well-made documentary but you had better have a stomach for macho, 17-year-old a-holes if you think you're going to enjoy this. Personally, I find it unbelievable that Cory Booker & President Clinton succeeded in this 'competition', but maybe it's not just the macho who survive? I can't watch the end of it so I don't know.

Personally, I attended Nevada Boys State in the summer prior to my senior year old of high school in 2013. So this documentary was quite exhilarating as a vehicle for helping me revisit and reevaluate my time during that eventful week; what I learned about government, leadership and male friendship. I'm grateful for my time there. I really would like to hear about the reaction of other Boys State alumni to the film.

I was amazed by how compelling the documentary ended up being, it was filmed very professionally while still being fly on the wall, it wasn't scripted, so the fact that they chose to focus on the boys who ended up going surprisingly far and crossed paths at times made for a compelling narrative that came out of serendipity and manages effectively to make you emotionally invested in a mock government election.

I will admit I thought the parts of the film where we hear about the boys' own subjective opinions and perceptions of real political figures and institutions to be quite unnecessary and cringeworthy but they were easy to skip over and didn't drag it too much. I also wish we could have heard more from the real adult organizers of Boys State to get a sense of what their vision for the program even is and how they view the occasional chicanery that takes place there.

I really wish we had a similar documentary for Girls State, as it would be interesting to see how teen girls process modern politics in contrast to their male counterparts, maybe in a more swing state like Georgia or Arizona. Regardless I really enjoyed my experience for the film and I'm glad for its success.

It is easy to engage with the characters and politics of this film. You can get mad. You can yell at the screen. You can shake your head in dismay. You can stand up and cheer. But I guarantee you one thing: you cannot sit back and ignore what these Texan adolescents teach us. About our nation. About our politics. About ourselves. Steven Garza and his peers reminded me that politics don't have to define us, even if we let that happen far too often. I walked away momentarily hopeful that my kids could stand for something and that I could do the same...and also mindful that false binaries are super tempting for all of us. I wish every documentary managed this kind of storytelling and nuance.

This is simultaneously the most funny and most terrifying movie of 2020.