Monrovia, Indiana
First screened in September 2018
Director: Frederick Wiseman. Documentary about the local culture, institutions, and governance of a small Midwestern town. Twitter Capsule:
Wiseman's gaze always engrosses but his best films reframe your perceptions of the subject. This doesn't, quite.
Second Capsule:
As an urban voter often told I have no grasp of "small town America," little here suggested that. Not a knock; perhaps a point of interest.
Third Capsule:
The choice not to enter a single Monrovian home is consistent with Wiseman's defining interest in public institutions but also a little odd.
VOR:③
Is a non-editorializing, concertedly apolitical, 2½-hour record of a nearly all-white, Trump-supporting town a valuable document or a galling dodge?
