The Other Side

Roberto Minervini, an Italian, made this 2015 documentary about a certain segment of the American population. Just what they are on "the other side" of is not clear. And though this film was made while Obama was president, it's relevant now. This is Trump's America.

Minervini is in West Monroe, Louisiana, among the trailer trash. For the first two thirds of the movie he follows Mark, a forty-ish ex-con who lives in a trailer with Lisa. They both do a lot of drugs and Mark seems to be only intermittently employed (the film doesn't say if he's on public assistance). Mark allows Minervini amazing access. He is filmed as he breaks into a school with his nephew, has sex with Lisa (soft-core porn) and most disturbingly, shoots some kind of drug (meth?) into a visibly pregnant woman. That woman is also a stripper, who does her act with her big prominent belly.

This portion of the film is sad because Mark is clearly intelligent. Late in his segment he says he's going to turn himself in for three months in jail so he can get clean. Lisa asks if they can't get clean without jail, but he knows he can't be around the stuff.

The final third of the movie is scary stuff. It's a glimpse at one of those paramilitary groups that have machine guns and play soldier in the woods, preparing for martial law and their guns getting confiscated. The interesting thing about these guys is a lot of them are ex-military, yet they are preparing for a revolution and seem to have forgotten that the president is their commander-in-chief. Yet they put an Obama mask in a car and blow it up (Mark is also anti-Obama, calling him a nigger). The Obama mask makes another appearance on the head of a woman who is giving a man a blowjob.

These weekend warriors get a lot of press attention, and they are a lunatic fringe, but I'd be interested to see what they're doing now since I'm sure they are happy with Trump. One post from a deranged right-winget I saw on Facebook today called for martial law so all "libtards" could be rounded up. Maybe they are the ones that will fight Alex Jones' civil war if Trump is impeached.

Is this America? I hope not, but I wonder if this is how the world sees us. The last line of the movie is "Fucking America!" spoken by one of those who is waiting for the revolution. This could have been the title of the film.