Watching this felt like watching mice in a lab experiment. It is so interesting to see what these kids do in relation to politics. You can see a lot of things here. There are moments that scare you in seeing how these kids act and then there moments that give you hope. The Boys State program itself seems a little confusing, since nothing actually happens and it is all about elections and voting. Their platforms don’t mean anything for the most part. They can say whatever they want, which I guess mirrors real life nowadays. The other thing that is scary is the two-party system. Many people in their speeches attack the other side for just being the other side even though no one has platforms yet. It seems counter intuitive to how the world should be run. After the gubernatorial candidates are chosen it is frightening how dark things can turn — whether its the faction trying to impeach René and using racist imagery, to the way people attack Steven during the race. It becomes a legit real election.These kids are so fascinating. René is amazing, you can see he will have a good career in public speaking, if nothing else. Ben is cool, but scary. Robert scares the ever-loving shit out of me if he gets his shit together and goes into actual Congress because all he cares about is winning. He seems to have learned the lesson during the race for the nomination, but man is it still scary. Steven is my favorite, but seems too idealistic at times — people like him don’t actually exist in Congress these days. He also reminds me of a buddy of mine so there was a little bias in my viewing on him. It seems amazing to me that the filmmakers were able to find these specific people as it really shows the landscape of our country in this little bubble of a summer camp. The film also reminded me a lot of SPELLBOUND.
