The documentary Melania just crushed expectations at the box office. Analysts project $8.1 million in opening weekend ticket sales across the U.S. and Canada. That marks the biggest documentary debut in 14 years, according to the New York Times. The thing is, it shouldn’t have done well at all. At least, not if the left had anything to do with it.
The mainstream media launched a propaganda campaign against it. As I previously reported, critics lambasted the film, but we knew they would do that anyway. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the film earns a mere 7% from critics, but a stunning 99% from fans. This wasn’t a movie for the critics because they were never going to like it. To maintain their credibility in Hollywood, they were going to trash it, as they’ve done with every single movie or documentary from the right, be it the Ronald Reagan biopic or the Matt Walsh documentary on gender ideology.
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I’m old enough to remember when the left couldn’t get enough of Michael Moore and his factually devoid documentaries, and the critics loved them. His 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. His 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has a 82% rating. His healthcare documentary Sicko, in which he praised the health care systems in Canada, France, the UK, and even Cuba, has a 91% rating. His anti-Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 has at 82% rating. These documentaries are propaganda in every sense of the word. But, the critics didn’t care. They told them what they wanted to hear. They didn’t compare any of Michael Moore’s works to the work of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl they way they did with Melania.
I’ll be honest, I really have little interest in the documentary. I have an Amazon Prime subscription, and expect it will be available there soon enough. Will I watch it then? I dunno. Probably not. Who knows? But, according to the New York Times, some people went to see it to send a message to left-wing Hollywood.
Bob Schmidt, 60, went to see “Melania” at the Alamo Drafthouse on Staten Island on Friday. He rarely goes to the movies anymore, he said, but he bought a ticket to send a message to what he called the liberal movie industry. “I wanted to see this movie kick Hollywood’s ass,” Mr. Schmidt said. (During the screening, attendees erupted in applause during the scene when President Trump is sworn in. Someone shouted, “Trump 2028!”)
Look, I’m not expecting liberals to like the Melania documentary. I don’t even expect them to watch. I wouldn't touch an Obama documentary with a ten-foot pole, but I also wouldn't fake an objective review, either.
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The problem here is that Hollywood used to create entertainment for everybody. Now it lectures from ivory towers, and people are quickly realizing what’s for them and what’s not. The news media did it first—legacy outlets veered hard left, giving rise to Fox News and others to balance them. Late-night talk shows took this to a whole new level and went so far to the left that conservative viewers flocked to Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show instead, making him the king of late-night, while Colbert is now months away from cancellation, and Kimmel is probably not far behind.
It didn’t have to be this way, with the left and the right creating their own ecosystems, but that’s apparently what the left wanted.
