Am I Racist (2024 Documentary)

Category: Documentary

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The challenge with reviewing documentaries that cover hot-button topics, and especially ones from figures as polarising as Matt Walsh, is in separating the film as a film from your personal politics about the topic that the film covers. If you so happen to agree with the point of view being presented, there will be very little in the way to stop you thinking the movie is Oscar-worthy, whereas if you have a pre-existing objection of some sort, then you will be more likely to find flaw with - and maybe even refuse to review - said cinematic work. I'm not personally unaware of that the challenge of personal bias, so with that in mind I will fully confess that (at time of writing) I was a Daily Wire subscriber (however I've let that lapse) and that I agree to an extent with some (but definitely not all) of the musings and opinions of Matt Walsh and co. I certainly wouldn’t call myself a DW fan-boi - but I do want to put it out there, and I will strive to review this like I see it.

The premise of Am I Racist? is that Matt Walsh feels compelled to learn more about the DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) movement, and in particular, the racism aspect, which leads him to ask - am I racist? To explore this further, Walsh goes to a racism workshop (albeit with a poor disguise) which ends up with him being outed as that guy Matt Walsh, so he regroups, takes on a slightly better disguise, gets an online DEI certification and then does on-camera interviews and pieces with noted DEI experts/authors. Walsh goes so far as to create his own workshop (The "Do-The-Work Workshop") and then comes to a realisation that the whole DEI/anti-racism movement is essentially a self-flaglellating sham. The workshop scenes and the interviews are interspersed with vox pops with people in very far from urban areas, an attempt to rename the George Washington Monument to the George Floyd Momument (complete with making it black and 30% bigger, which brought me a chuckle), and with every DEI expert that Walsh talks to, a dollar figure is associated with their name to indicate the cost of securing the interview.

The documentary ends with Walsh having a sit-down chat outside a cafe with his uncle Frank, who is portrayed as being the racist uncle of Matt Walsh's family.

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Love him or hate him, Walsh's dry, almost deadpan, comedic style is brilliant and most reviews I have read have made favourable comparisons between Walsh and Borat. Both have the ability to make people to drop their guard to say stupid things, and say some stupid things Walsh's interlocutors do - this much shouldn't be under dispute. Walsh's understated humour is quite adeptly displayed in the Race To Dinner scene where Walsh has managed to work on set as a waiter on the set of Race To Dinner, then right after RTD co-host Saira Rao says something quite heated, Walsh drops dinnerware on the floor and everyone in the room looks at each other in awkward silence.

Then we have THAT Robin DiAngelo scene where Walsh's character guilts author and educator Robin DiAngelo in to diving in to her wallet to give Matt Walsh's producer (an African-American man) cash as a way of reparations. DiAngelo apparently deleted her Twitter profile after this scene was released.

But hands down the best and funniest scene of this movie - and maybe of the year - is the Jussie Smollett hate-attack recreation scene where Matt Walsh comedically plays the role of Smollett being attacked as Smollett is recounting his hoaxed attack in an interview.

I also got a chuckle out of post-credit scene where Walsh calls up the bookstore asking for a book that is titled a particular six-letter racial slur used by and against African-Americans - he's trying not to say the name of the book, while the other person on the phone is clueless as to what the book is named.

Now, as entertaining as some parts of this film are, there are some drawbacks.

The biggest is that it while the one-on-one interviews and vox pops all come across as real and genuine, the group sessions felt like I was watching an enactment of something the producers believe should have happened or wanted to happen - the camerawork, the shooting quality and even the scenarios all lead me think what I'm seeing is concocted. Now, Walsh has said in subsequent interviews that the scenario in the beginning of the film where Walsh is busted not telling everyone he is Matt Walsh was completely legit and they had permission to film, as well as the Race To Dinner scene, but the rest, and especially the group sessions? I don't know. I found it very hard to be convinced that I was watching genuine, candid experiences, particularly when they bring out Uncle Frank. Uncle Frank seems like a character to drive a plot point, not a real person.

And this is the thing with documentaries - we see what not only the host, but the producers and directors (and maybe even the studio) want us to see. We aren't there and we can't be there watching everything being filmed as it is being filmed, so everything we see is either a slice or a splice of what actually was captured. This isn't to accuse Matt Walsh and co of duplicity - I wouldn't go that far - but I am also aware the every documentary is a product of the people behind it.

Second, I personally would have liked to have had a bit more factual meat-on-the-bone. I get that Walsh and other on-screen personalities have their own thoughts and feelings about race and society, and sure, present your thoughts and feelings, but if you're trying to teach someone something, a bit of edutainment isn't a bad thing.

Having said all that, as a piece of cinematic work, Am I Racist? isn't bad. As part of the on-going culture war we are in, this documentary has some value in watching. I just don't think it has much re-watch value - it's not as drop-dead funny or memeable as a Borat film, and it's not necessarily educational (except to highlight the extreme positions some people take).

Is it Oscar-worthy as some people are suggesting? If it is, then the state of documentaries is quite parlous. Or I'm missing the genius of Matt Walsh. Both scenarios could be true.

STAR RATING: 3.25/5