Am I Racist?

For one reason or another, there are some movies that we the people of entertainment media tend to overlook. In the case of the documentary Am I Racist?, that specific reason is that we’re liberals. BARRA: No American main stream company reviewed the film which has been in the top ten for two weeks- the first theatrical release from Ben Shapiro’s conservative media company The Daily Wire. So The Hollywood Reporter hired someone who doesn’t mind being ostracised by everybody. That person was me.

However, even more remarkable is that Am I Racist? if that name makes one cringe, the film has made over $9 million in box office revenues, making it among the 40 highest grossing documentary films of all time. Even more in this line is that the AMC 16 in Burbank was the 14th highest earning theater for the film Am I Racist?

So on Thursday, right after work, I went to Burbank to see who goes to watch this movie in a city where roughly 70% of the voters chose Joe Biden in the last presidential election. I picked the latest showing available, which was 1420.

I couldn’t help but smile a little too much at the Latina girl who was selling tickets to the show and asked her a little nervously – one ticket for Am I Racist? He did not seem bothered by my request which I suppose is why I felt a little more at ease when I gave that ticket to the Asian woman who kindly pointed me to theater six.

A beer can abandoned by an audience member at noon sitting quietly in a dark suited theatre which otherwise appeared completely void of people. I engaged in my maximum research mode and an experiment about how to successfully destroy stereotypes.

Right before the film started, five people scattered throughout the theater: an old white man, a younger white woman and three-generations of a Latinx family, none of whom, I would guess, would want to be called Latinx. There were other couples too, but they hardly stood out, nicely blending into the background.

The movie plot revolves around ‘Borat-a-day’ type humour, where Matt Walsh a podcaster, dresses himself up with a wig and skinny jeans to tell the subjects of his documentary that he is making an anti racist film and ‘seeking justice’ although the title of the intended film is apparently Shades of Justice.

His dressing included skinny jeans and a man bun wig. It was incomprehensible that this is how he perceives a liberal in 2024. There was no such accent in that skype conversation with him either. Shouldn’t she have included a sushi counter as well?

Even if he was able to elicit a couple of giggles from my four fellow audience members, Walsh does not seem to possess any of the qualities of a comedian such as being funny. He is too calm and collected that everything is a little bit overboard in terms of the balance.

And he gets good zingers sometimes and makes them count: For example to many who attended an anti racist grief seminar held by the Walsh foundation when it turns out that the first activity is introducing yourself to the group with the most unusual compliment you have ever received, he says – “I once had a compliment which said that I have many blacks as friends. Seventeen of them.” Most of the times though, his comedy is a photostat of other comedians.

Am I Racist? is to comedy what stubs are to criminals, funny, but very febrile. It is a mafia flick albeit a counterfeit one where the mafia pretends to imitate other mobster pics instead of real criminal activities. It’s scattered bits of what really are brilliant comic moments buried by everyone in the film. There’s an ironic slow clap. Plates are dropped. He fake cries.

Then again, let’s give some credit to Walsh — the thing that Sacha Baron Cohen does is very difficult — plus he is supposed to be playing a character, a professional actor. Most of the times Cohen himself fails too, actually, Alain.

Even when his movies work, he tends to cut out a lot of waste, which in this case means many unnecessary scenes. Walsh appears to be more conservative in the cutting, so to speak. The ironic slow clap is not nearly absent. Reenacting a faux hate crime involving “actor” Jussie Smollet isn’t going anywhere.

Saying that letting 20 people sign a petition featuring the George Floyd Monument instead of the Washington Monument seemed patronizing was easy because bringing a mere 20 kind citizens to sign that particular document is no big deal. His attempt to interview the woman who disliked Sesame Place because it allowed its character to ignore her black children was so purpose free that he could have been terminated from The Daily Show long ago.

Nevertheless, Walsh aspires to be shamed by the well-known DEI’ s authorities who he calls on for help, and they make a wait for public humiliation but mostly, it is not forthcoming. He gets Robin D’Angelo, the author of Asian Fragility, to give his Black group $30 in ‘reparations’ from her own money, which she readily does.

At a Race2Dinner event hosted by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao where white women pay to be screamed at and actually feel vindicated about their expenditure, he pretends he is a waitress. Still, it is not uncommon for his subjects to fail to follow and sufficiently offend others – except of course 🙁 this one is their only problem. Those ones who did not however perform relatively trivial exercises like tyre throwing and bald headed suturing did proceed to skewer themselves as indeed did their subjects.

He is also good at portraying DEI instructors as swindlers. D’Angelo got paid $15,000 to appear in the movie; the mom from Sesame Place received a $50, 000 fee; and the Race2Dinner hostesses earned $5000 each. Walsh even lures people to pay for a DEI seminar that he conducts (the Do the Work! Workshop) where at the end, he dispenses whips for the people to get self-punished.

After the screening I interviewed Lacretia Lyon, an audience member, stand up, podcaster, who learnt of the film when Walsh was a guest on Adam Carolla’s podcast. She did not only find the subject matter interesting but added that she came because she is an AMC Stubs A-list member which permits members to watch three movies in a week. “I was surprised how funny it was,” said Lyon. Walsh did the undercover bits spot on in her opinion, having been a fan of the Borat series.

“The narcissism was amazing to watch,” she said of some Declarations by Empathy Instructors who flaunted their grandiose racial goodness. All of whom were women. Which was why hers was the reason Lyon didn’t bother to invite any of her friends over. “A lot of girls aren’t gonna be interested in this,” she said.

The Latinx family requested to remain anonymous. It was reasonable to wonder if cameras inside the lobby would record their conversations. However, just before they left me, the youngest among the girls, who had on a pair of sunglasses with long hair and a beaded necklace, said, “Vote red,” in a hushed tone. The awful impression of woke impersonators, I was anxiously held back, would be of ubiquitous.

Watch free movies on Fmovies