Trump: The Art of the Insult

Joel Gilbert is a right-wing filmmaker whose specialty is in-your-face documentaries that are often based on crude conspiracy theories. Here, Gilbert celebrates the coarse, bombastic rhetoric that Donald Trump used so effectively against opponents in the 2016 presidential campaign. Much of the running time is devoted to excerpts of Trump's rants from debates, news conferences, and rallies, but also included are infamous tweets, preceded by obviously staged inserts of a guy wearing a red Trump hat and working a cell phone. Further visual inserts show what Trump is referring to (like Marco Rubio's notorious lunge for a water bottle while giving a speech), or they feature responses from hapless foes to his outrageous charges (such as Ted Cruz complaining about Trump's suggestion that his father was engaged in the Kennedy assassination). Toward the close, as Gilbert trains his eye on the race with Hillary Clinton, he includes footage that he shot for a featurette about Danney Williams, a black man whose claims to be Bill's illegitimate son (by a drug-addicted prostitute) have been widely debunked. Trump supporters who applaud his outlandish tactics will no doubt find this amusing, while others will be revolted by the ugly barrage that Gilbert has so gleefully assembled. Extras include the Williams short, and trailers for Gilbert's other efforts, mostly conspiracy-based assaults on Barack Obama's paternity. Except for die-hard Trump fanatics, this is not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (F. Swietek)