My Son Hunter

This is an important attempt at art. I was very pleased to see the ads for this one. Obviously there are powerful entities trying their best to cover up the important factual elements of this movie. The world of cinema has been so influenced by these forces that making a controversial in your face movie about the factual truth at the heart of this news story and making it with an attitude is very punk rock and I stand and applaud that.

This movie lays out some important facts. The lead actor is very good at playing the titular character. Shedding light on these matters through this art form at this moment in history is very important. I just wish I had more nice things to say about it, but that's about it. It reminds me more of the brief corny reenacting segments from a Dnesh Dsouza documentary than it does a classic piece of real cinema. If you want to know the facts, here are they are. Its just I dont know who this movie is for.

Anybody who wants to see this is probably already curious enough and knowledgeable enough about all the facts in the movie. I was expecting these facts to have a good movie around them. A well told story that you could appreciate in a timeless fashion even if you had no idea about any of this or the weight of it at present. Unfortunately that doesn't happen. False advertising. I wouldn't recommend it to people who dont follow American politics closely. Its a well done reenactment of facts and lays them out well in the way you would expect a corny network reenactment to play out. They try to inject some comedy but it isn't well done or funny aside from a few brief moments. The acting aside from the main character (he's great) is very very amateur, as is the pacing and cinematography and soundtrack and the rest. If you're looking for confirmation bias and dead set on liking this and laughing at the poorly told "jokes" that's the only way I could see calling this a good piece of cinema.

As a reenactment of facts it succeeds and is more fun than just watching a documentary with interviews and talking heads. I just feel betrayed by the false advertising that this is a real top notch film. I think most of the target audience already knows these facts, so it would have been nice if it could appeal to more of mainstream moviegoers. As a reenactment of important present news stories it succeeds in the way a really good episode of a TV News Drama like Unsolved Mysteries would. As true timeless cinematic art, nope, I dont know how anybody could say that with honesty it even finds the ballpark. A step in the right direction for cinema, but a very small baby step that ends in a collapse. Its heart was in the right place, but thats not enough. Better luck next time, keep trying.

My reaction to the film is both good and bad. The film opens with the disclaimer this is a not a true story, except for the facts" That really seems to be the point of the film. The fictional narrative is a device used to help make sense and flesh out a variety of characters, relationships and complex schemes we may have heard bantered about in the press. It's not an Oliver Stone political blockbuster like JFK but it's certainly more entertaining than Tom Hanks snoozer "The Post." Even with several compelling performances, the film has an aura of low budget amateurishness about it as it is often just too on the nose but certainly not without style. In a way, that really works for "My Son Hunter." Even with it's flaws, it's a fun film. Yet after watching, I was left wondering, was I cringing in parts because of the movie or because what the Biden's got up to was so bad? This film is it's own animal. It's satire blended with facts designed to get the audience to dig deeper into a problem a politically polarized media has purposely tried to ignore and suppress. It's obvious the film maker meant this as a "Wake up you idiots" slap in the face to those who failed to do their job for the sake of getting the"Orange Man out." In that regard my hat is off to a film maker who dared do what professional in the press would not. Those with political leanings one way or the other may praise or pan the film depending on their bias. I'd encourage everyone to give it a watch and make up their own mind. If only half the facts presented in this movie were true, and I suspect that may be an understatement, this would make the film a powerful piece worthy of serious follow up... this time.

The facts, or the truth? Alternative facts - remember those? This may, or may not be the whole picture, but it's worth watching to see a great performance by Laurence Fox. He might be cancelled for his political views - but the fact is he is an amazing performer. Hunter Biden may be a morally corrupt individual, he certainly is no Saint, and he is painted here as an unpleasant narcissistic drug user. It's an interesting optic of a man in freefall, devoid of any guiding light. Fox brings this to life in spades. The reality is that Fox is nothing like Biden, and has entered the British political arena himself, while his acting career appears to be stalled. Gina Carano, herself no stranger to controvery with social media, breaks the 4th wall with great wit, and brings humour and physical presence to her part.

You can see from the plethora of 1 and 10 star reviews here how blindly polarized American society is today. If it doesn't conform to the biased news sources both left and right that demonize each other daily, then there is absolutely no moderate middle ground it seems. For those of you giving this 9-10 stars... give your head a shake. That's like putting it on par with The Godfather. For those giving it 1 star reviews, stop watching MSNBC for a second, chill out and try to enjoy the satire. Trump has been roasted constantly over the last 6 years to the point where it's supremely annoying. God forbid someone should do the same to the Bidens for once.

OK rant over, on to the merits and drawbacks of the movie. I will agree that it was overly political, but what can you expect coming from Breitbart. I found the monologues hand-feeding Hunter's misdeeds to the audience with Carrano and the other side characters annoying distractions that really draw you out of the main narrative and make it seem like more of a political hit job than a film. That's probably my biggest gripe, and there are way more creative ways to do this.

The script is laughable at times, but overall I think it pulls through as just around par. The production value was actually quite good, with some great cinematography. Probably one of the best parts of the film, but it's almost like putting lipstick on a pig due to the other failings.

Despite everything else, I really enjoyed Laurence Fox's performance and think he did an excellent job portraying the sleazy yet emotionally damaged addict. Seeing his acting in the trailer was what originally got me to watch this in the first place. The parts where he was recounting his brother Beau and their childhood were excellent. If the rest of the script was able to evoke emotion even close to that as opposed to those annoying asides, this could have been a much better movie. John James as Biden was pretty funny too. I'm glad they didn't throw low blows by making fun of the speech and memory problems.

Overall, I'd give it a 6.5. This is an average movie that is held up by Laurence Fox's great acting, momentary emotional parts of the script that really shine through, and solid production value.

I swear reading through the reviews of this, you'd think that this movie was garbage. The acting was meh and the script was jumbled together but I think this was a hilarious.

"Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up" -Alan Moore The lie is that this is a satire..... Everything in this movie has been verified to be true but because we are so polarized as a nation, half the population eats whatever the mainstream media throws at them and thinks it's true when they are just as bad as politicians about lying. Journalistic Integrity is lost. Think for yourself, soak in multiple independent news sources and be informed before voting. Maybe vote for who wants government to control LESS and give people more freedoms because after all the government is supposed to be small and protect God given freedoms.