I was reccommended this film by a friend who went to boys state, and I decided to check it out because he thought I would like it. I ended up despising this film, sorry man, you’re still an awesome dude, but I just can’t force myself to like this movie.
I knew nothing about what Boys State was when going into this film, my friend only told me bits and pieces about his experiences, and from what I could gather it was something akin to a political fraternity. I thought the topic was quite interesting, but I was sorely mistaken. This film MEANDERS so much. Despite me being interested in the beginning, I could not force myself to care about these people, or the petty drama they were having. Every scene boils down to “oh this teen lied and slandered their opponent in a mock election, isn’t this just like actual politics”? That’s the extent of the social commentary. There is no in depth analysis to WHY these teenagers believe what they believe, and WHY they act that way, it just shows us annoying teens arguing, and that’s it.
I want to make something clear, I am NOT rating this low due to politics, even if I definitely don’t agree with the liberal politics of this film, and the right wingers in it. I am rating this low because it fails to be a good documentary on almost every front. The cinematography is horrible, the filmmakers had a good enough budget to afford a decent camera, but there are numerous shots that were out of focus and horribly lit. Every single shot is just terrible to look at, it’s not even servicable. I didn’t like a single person in this film, and that’s not because they’re bad people necessarily, teen boys tend to be annoying and reactionary more often than not, but because the documentary made no effort to humanize any of these people, they are just talking heads for whatever hyper specific political ideology they’re obsessed with. “Boys State” goads the audience into supporting René and Steven because they’re not as radical as the other teenagers there. That is it. There is legitimately no other reason to root for them, other than the fact that they are both centrist liberals and minorties, in a predominantly conservative and white space. Am I supposed to be invested? The only time I felt remotely bad for anybody in the film, was when Steven cried, and that was AT THE END OF THE FILM.
This really could’ve been a good film, and it’s an absolute shame that it isn’t. There were times I was getting interested in the plot, but anything remotely interesting would be undercut by clips of the teens cat fighting and acting like annoying toddlers. I really wish the filmmakers went more into the history behind boys state, the influence it had on actual US legislation, and why most of the members leaned so heavily right wing. I get that it’s more about the electoral process, but even that could’ve been done in an interesting way. I don’t think this is a completely unsaveable piece of garbage, there’s good material here for sure; but in my personal opinion, this is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life.
I was reccommended this film by a friend who went to boys state, and I decided to check it out because he thought I would like it. I ended up despising this film, sorry man, you’re still an awesome dude, but I just can’t force myself to like this movie.
I knew nothing about what Boys State was when going into this film, my friend only told me bits and pieces about his experiences, and from what I could gather it was something akin to a political fraternity. I thought the topic was quite interesting, but I was sorely mistaken. This film MEANDERS so much. Despite me being interested in the beginning, I could not force myself to care about these people, or the petty drama they were having. Every scene boils down to “oh this teen lied and slandered their opponent in a mock election, isn’t this just like actual politics”? That’s the extent of the social commentary. There is no in depth analysis to WHY these teenagers believe what they believe, and WHY they act that way, it just shows us annoying teens arguing, and that’s it.
I want to make something clear, I am NOT rating this low due to politics, even if I definitely don’t agree with the liberal politics of this film, and the right wingers in it. I am rating this low because it fails to be a good documentary on almost every front. The cinematography is horrible, the filmmakers had a good enough budget to afford a decent camera, but there are numerous shots that were out of focus and horribly lit. Every single shot is just terrible to look at, it’s not even servicable. I didn’t like a single person in this film, and that’s not because they’re bad people necessarily, teen boys tend to be annoying and reactionary more often than not, but because the documentary made no effort to humanize any of these people, they are just talking heads for whatever hyper specific political ideology they’re obsessed with. “Boys State” goads the audience into supporting René and Steven because they’re not as radical as the other teenagers there. That is it. There is legitimately no other reason to root for them, other than the fact that they are both centrist liberals and minorties, in a predominantly conservative and white space. Am I supposed to be invested? The only time I felt remotely bad for anybody in the film, was when Steven cried, and that was AT THE END OF THE FILM.
This really could’ve been a good film, and it’s an absolute shame that it isn’t. There were times I was getting interested in the plot, but anything remotely interesting would be undercut by clips of the teens cat fighting and acting like annoying toddlers. I really wish the filmmakers went more into the history behind boys state, the influence it had on actual US legislation, and why most of the members leaned so heavily right wing. I get that it’s more about the electoral process, but even that could’ve been done in an interesting way. I don’t think this is a completely unsaveable piece of garbage, there’s good material here for sure; but in my personal opinion, this is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life.
