Hi everyone, Bryan here…

It’s funny. Damn funny. Just saying the word ‘Weiner’ makes me laugh. I know, I’m ten years old, but I laugh every time. I’m not the only one though, as you can listen to forty seconds of a radio show below to see well-respected and professional film critics laugh at the word. It might be ironic and even funnier when you say the word and imply the former politician Anthony Weiner from a few years ago, given what happened with that guy’s political run and life. Luckily for us, a couple people made a documentary on Anthony Weiner’s life in the thick of all the scandals, simply titled ‘Weiner‘.

Filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg were granted heavy access in Weiner’s home and political campaign offices as Weiner himself was given a second chance in New York City to run for Mayor. If we back up a bit, and as this documentary shows in the first couple of minutes, is that Anthony Weiner was once the top of the democratic field with his amazing and boastful performance at the House of Representatives that made the news for quite a while. You couldn’t talk about politics or social issues without bringing up Anthony Weiner and his courageous stand against the opposing view. It wasn’t very long before Weiner became a joke, when an image of his weiner showed up in a sexual text message to someone other than his wife Huma Abedin, who was a former advisor for Hillary Clinton.

Anthony lies to the people and media about it all, but then confessed. He resigned from his political office and tried to work on his marriage. This is where this ‘Weiner‘ documentary picks up, with Anthony asking the people for a second chance and his run for mayor. We get glimpses of his home life, campaign rallies, and him riding a bike in New York. Things look on the up and up, but a new scandal hits again with new images taken recently of Weiner’s weiner, this time fully exposed to a woman named Sydney Leathers.

In the heart of him running for mayor, all of these images leak and his family and media jump all over it, and not necessarily in a good way. Anthony tries to talk politics on numerous television shows and interviews, but the only thing anyone wants to talk about is his weiner. It’s funny and sad all at the same time, and this intimate documentary shows the awkward and sad moments that Huma had to endure at her husband’s now public weiner. Anthony seems like a nice enough guy and he seemed to be on top of his game, but he just couldn’t seem to keep it in his pants, at least on a text message.

The real villain here is Sydney Leathers, who made everything public just to be famous and get money. She even tried to to show up to his campaign office on election night to make it awkward. That’s poor form, but hey, she went on to do adult films. I don’t know if Anthony Weiner can ever recover from this second scandal, but I hope the people of the USA can look past personal lives and focus on the political issues he stood for, because that’s what it’s all about, and not some naked photos online. The documentary does a good fly-on-the-wall type of approach and never gets in the way of any political issues here. It’s just about the Weiner family’s life in and out of a particularly embarrassing scandal.

RECOMMENDED!

CLICK HERE FOR THE 40 SECOND SOUND CLIP!

-Bryan Kluger

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