A documentary by six-time Emmy nominee Alexandra Pelosi which immediately drew criticism and acclaim from predictable ends of the political spectrum. It’s no easy task following up films like The Trials of Ted Haggard and Friends of God, but this interesting, sometimes terrifying insight, does a pretty remarkable job of pointing out what’s right, wrong and downright kooky in middle America without taking any cheap shots.
This movie conspicuously lacks the nasty “gotcha documentary” feel of a Michael Moore or Bill Maher film, regardless of what you might hear from conservative commentators. Bill Maher isn’t on the hook to be fair and Michael Moore honestly has to pander a bit to his base. Pelosi doesn’t have it so easy.
In this film, Alexandra Pelosi (of the well known Pelosi’s… yes, those Pelosi’s) has to bend over backwards to just to paint a fair picture, if only because she shares the last name with her mother, the first female Democratic Speaker of the House. From the Republican standpoint, you could argue that the Pelosi surname is a double handicap, since it’s also synonymous with Democrat impotence in the house, on top of the hurdles it surely caused in the course of shooting the piece.