''The Brink'' is a 2019 documentary film, directed by

Alison Klayman Alison Klayman (born 1984) is an American filmmaker and journalist best known for her award-winning 2012 documentary '' Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry''. Life and career Klayman grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Brown University in 2006 wit ...

. The film is produced by Marie Therese Guirgis, and Alison Klayman under the banner of AliKlay Productions, Claverie Films, and RYOT Films. The film stars Steve Bannon.

Plot

The film follows Bannon from his latter days in the Trump administration to just after the 2018 midterms as he attempts to form a global populist movement with like-minded individuals such as Nigel Farage,

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician who ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022. A member of the National Rally (RN; previously the National Front, FN), she served as its pre ...

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

Viktor Orban The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

Kent Ekeroth Kent Alexander Ekeroth (born 11 September 1981) is a Swedish politician and economist, who represented the Sweden Democrats. Early life Ekeroth was born in Malmö to a Jewish mother, Janina Kazarina, originally from Kazakhstan in Central Asia ( ...

, Filip Dewinter, and others.

Cast

* Steve Bannon * Nigel Farage

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Brink'' won't change many minds about its subject, but it remains a compelling – if perhaps difficult to watch – look at a divisive ideological lightning rod."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

s David Edelstein wrote that the film is "the year’s most urgent documentary — the one you need to see this week, not this year." In his positive '' Variety'' review, Owen Glieberman wrote "''The Brink'' is a far better and more penetrating film than Errol Morris’s Bannon portrait, ''

American Dharma ''American Dharma'' is a 2018 British-American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. The film follows the career of political strategist Steve Bannon. The film was released on November 1, 2019, by Utopia. Synopsis ''American Dharma'' cons ...

'', which let Bannon bathe in his own aura." He also says "Bannon has a way of revealing himself when he thinks he’s not." David Fear of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' wrote in his review "Portrait of a Political Charlatan in Winter": "''The Brink'', Alison Klayman’s insightful and often unnerving look at one of the most divisive figures in recent memory, isn’t a particularly fun or easy watch". He also says the director's "methodology feels like a combo of fly-on-the-wall and give-’em-enough-rope.".

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave the film a Critic's Pick.

References

External links

* * * * * 2019 films American documentary films Steve Bannon 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{2010s-documentary-film-stub