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Boys State. 2020. USA. Directed by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. 109 min.
The sensational winner of the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is a wildly entertaining, continually revealing immersion into a weeklong annual program in which a thousand Texas high school seniors gather for an elaborate mock exercise: building their own state government. Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine closely track the escalating tensions that arise within a particularly riveting gubernatorial race, training their cameras on unforgettable teenagers like Ben, a Reagan-loving arch-conservative who brims with confidence despite personal setbacks, and Steven, a progressive-minded child of Mexican immigrants who stands by his convictions amid the sea of red. In the process, they have created a complex portrait of contemporary American masculinity, and a microcosm of our often dispiriting national political divisions that nevertheless manages to plant seeds of hope. Courtesy of Apple
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