The Brink

As we grow older, we learn that people we thought were adults really have no idea what they're doing. In "The Brink," director Alison Klayman confirms that political strategist Steve Bannon has no idea, as well as no heart and no soul - just ego and hatred, and the ability to weaponize the same in others.

The 90-minute documentary is disjointed like its subject; it's snippets of Bannon grasping at straws and at power after he was cast out from Trump's White House in 2017. He drags his Red Bull-sipping, two shirt-wearing self around Europe trying to extract consulting fees and cement anti-immigrant ideologies in nationalist politicos.

The film follows the self-reported Jabba the Hut from his HQ in DC, "The Breitbart Embassy," although he was fired from that alt-right website he founded at the same time the Mercer family stopped writing checks and Trump ejected the minion he eventually called "Sloppy Steve." Although out of the inner circle, Bannon continues to crusade for the Divider-in-Chief, creating what he cheerfully admits are propaganda films and working to stop the Dems from flipping the House during the midterms (he failed, spectacularly).

Bannon is scattered, and desperate for attention, but his one superpower is targeting and manipulating the disenfranchised. He has correctly determined that "we need an immovable solid minority" (like the MAGAs) in order to fuel his right-wing coup.

Like many contemporary conservatives, Bannon seems to be "playing government," assuming the needle will move right by the sheer force of will and believing in the lies he spins. Although providing unfettered access to the man, who really wants to be this close to the prevarication and desperation? Most viewers are looking for reasons why America remains a house divided, but there are no answers here, only more questions about how we find ourselves on the brink of destruction.