The film puts the Obama-Wright nexus into context, something rigorously avoided by 99 percent of traditional media outlets. The reverend’s stark, anti-American tinged theology works hand-in-hand with the film’s anti-colonial through line.
Dinesh D’Souza and President Barack Obama have plenty in common.
Both are of mixed ethnic heritage. Each was born in 1961 and later got married during the same year. And D’Souza and Obama grew up around people with vibrant anti-colonial impulses.
Yet the Indian-born immigrant marvels at the unique American experiment, while Obama appears to have a remarkably different take on the country’s promise.
“2016: Obama’s America,” already open in select theaters but opening wider this weekend, lets D’Souza connect the president’s current policies with the formative experiences of his youth. It’s a thesis gussied up as a feature-length documentary, one expressed through D’Souza’s quietly determined arguments.
It’s rare to see unabashedly right of center films, and when they arrive they typically reveal their modest budgets in every scene.
“2016” is different.
The documentary is slickly produced, with thoughtful camera work and impressive graphics. One need not embrace D’Souza’s thesis to appreciate the craft on display, or how the conservative author refuses to sling mud in grand Michael Moore fashion.
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