Weiner

Perhaps it's not surprising that in this tumultuous political year, disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner is the topic of a documentary by his ex-chief-of-staff Josh Kriegman. In 2011, Weiner resigned from his seven-term House of Representatives seat because of an infamous sexting scandal. Two years later, ever-ambitious Weiner enters the New York City mayoral race. When then-supporters Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg propose chronicling Weiner's run, they are given unprecedented access, staying with him even when a second wave of sexting revelations break. Central to the salacious story is Weiner's wife, Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin, a steely, self-possessed woman. “She was very eager to get her life back that I had taken from her,” he confesses, taking full blame for the harm that he caused. But once the campaign gets underway, bawdier transcripts and lewd crotch pictures surface under Weiner's pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” Those revelations, coupled with his abrasive, confrontational volatility, torpedo his chances. As Marshall McLuhan once said, “The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers.” Since Weiner obviously brought this on himself, one cannot help but feel for Abedin as she endures a second round of public humiliation, retreating to their $12,000-a-month Park Avenue South apartment. Serving up a compelling trainwreck portrait of a contemporary political suicide, this is recommended. (S. Granger)