Knock Down the House

I've never been a big fan of AOC, but this is an amazing window in the process faced by citizens trying to disrupt the establishment bias of congressional and senate elections. Brilliant documentary style and very down to earth compared to similar attempts. Doesn't focus heavily on the politics involved, significantly more on the process.

No matter who you vote for, this is a great watch.

In politics hindsight is 20/20. This documentary naturally cannot escape this fact but it matters little, for here we are given the role of the fly on the wall, as we follow a class of challengers to the democratic machine. This entails a focus on the emotions of this journey, from the beginning where no one cares to the end whether in defeat or victory.

A focus on the tactics of organizing a movement, or any logic on the asymmetry of struggle against these powerful incumbents, gets overshadowed by that of the personality of the characters involved. This makes for an entertaining emotional drama but one is left hungry for more details on how a campaign is won. Or lost as is the case for many of the candidates.

Still this is a decent documentary worth your time if you're interested in the zeitgeist of our moment in time, but I doubt it will have staying power. It spends too much time talking to the wishes of the democratic underdog, and not enough on the work required to win. The most interesting exception to this is when Ocasio-Cortez goes through the reasoning behind hers and her opponents election flyers. This is when we get to see the intelligence behind the charisma. More of that please!

As for those who give this one or ten stars the less said the better.

Some of the reviews are saying that this is "downright propaganda" and filled with "radical leftist" etc. etc., and I, quite honestly, didn't see any of that. There were no propaganda at all in this documentary, no one said "This is what you should believe.", all they said was "This is what I believe.". That's why AOC won, she said what she believed in, what she wanted for the country, for the state, and what she could deliver. She also went house to house, street to street, to talk with people about it.

The documentary also featured other candidates, who unfortunately lost the election. They shared extremely personal stories that a lot of people can relate to, and I would lie if I said that I didn't tear up.

Hopefully there'll be a sequel to this documentary, because I really want an inside look in AOC's life, as well as the other newcomers, as they begin their new political careers in congress. One can only hope.

Scrolling through the review section, I've noticed people who rate 1 star on this amazing inspirational documentary are those who see things with three letters of AOC and call it a garbage. For those of you who aren't like that, you should go ahead and watch this. This is very inspirational for anyone who is trying to go against the impossibles. This is inspirational for women who have gave up their way because of gender inequality. As a Japanese, I wish this is happening to us too.

First off I have to state over 40% of the ratings were given 1 star. This tells me tons of small minded conservatives, who most likely didn't even watch the film, are desperately trying to paint the film as propaganda. This documentary is far from it. As AOC states "Everyday Americans should be represented by everyday Americans" This documentary is about how much harder it is for women, especially women of color, to succeed in a straight white mans world in the government. it is about women who want to fight for what is right, not how big business can line their pockets. no matter what your political view is i think you will find this doc very eye opening. a definite must watch