Although the British appetite for absurd political posturing is probably pretty much sated at the moment, this fascinating documentary is well worth a watch. Professional firebrand Anthony Weiner was a rising star in US politics until a sexting scandal in 2011 torpedoed his career. This film follows Weiner’s ill-fated 2013 campaign to become New York’s mayor, a campaign that was self-sabotaged by Weiner’s weakness for exposing himself (literally) to temptation on social networking sites.
Edited to perfection, this is like watching the slow-motion footage of a building collapsing. Weiner’s long-suffering wife, Huma Abedin, herself a political figure, is a key sympathetic presence in the film. But it is Weiner himself, a likable narcissist with an Olympic capacity for vanity and self-delusion, who is every documentary-maker’s dream subject. There’s a telling moment when, watching footage of yet another PR disaster, instead of worrying about the cataclysmic political fallout, Weiner starts to fret about his thinning hair.
