Weiner (film)

Weiner is a 2016 American fly on the wall political documentary film by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg about Anthony Weiner’s campaign for Mayor of New York City during the 2013 mayoral election.

Weiner
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
  • Josh Kriegman
  • Elyse Steinberg
Produced by
  • Josh Kriegman
  • Elyse Steinberg
  • Julie Goldman
  • Christopher Clements
  • Carolyn Hepburn
  • Elizabeth Delaune Warren
  • Sean McGing
CinematographyJosh Kriegman
Edited byEli B. Despres
Production
company
  • Edgeline Films
  • Motto Pictures
Distributed bySundance Selects Showtime
Release date
  • January 24, 2016 (2016-01-24) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • May 20, 2016 (2016-05-20) (theatrical)
Running time
96 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,702,489[2]

Synopsis

The documentary follows congressman Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin, shortly after his 2011 resignation when scandalous photos of Weiner mysteriously appeared on his Twitter account,[3] leading to a tumultuous spiral as more and more pictures of the congressman in various states of undress begin to leak to the public.[4] The documentary revolves around his attempted comeback from his initial resignation during his 2013 campaign in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City. His campaign goes well at first, with many New Yorkers willing to give him a second chance as evidenced in polls putting him at or near the top of a tight mayoral race.[5] During the filming of the documentary, however, additional photos and evidence of online sexual activity surface, including explicit text conversations with women that occurred well after his 2011 resignation from Congress. The mood of the campaign switches from exuberance to pain. Intimate views are captured of Weiner, his wife and his campaign staff struggling with the new revelations and the media firestorm that ensues. Weiner's wife, an adviser to Hillary Clinton, comes under fire during the scandal.[6] The relationship between the couple gets strenuous, and in a couple of instances, the camera is asked to leave the room.[7][8] Weiner's campaign manager quits when a press conference is held in which Weiner comes clean of his sexting, and his campaign begins to take a downward spiral. Weiner comes in fifth place in the polls, garnering only 4.9% of the popular vote.[9]

People

People documented in the film include:

  • Anthony Weiner
  • Huma Abedin, his wife and a close aide to Hillary Clinton
  • Sydney Leathers, one of Weiner’s online sex partners, who attempts to confront him on election night
  • Barbara Morgan, Weiner's communications director
  • Camille Joseph, Weiner's campaign manager
  • Amit Bagga, Weiner's senior advisor
  • Maura Tracy, Weiner's senior staffer
  • Andrew Noh, Weiner's campaign aide


The film also features archival footage from:

Release

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. It was released theatrically in the United States in May 2016 and broadcast on Showtime in October 2016. Starting June 2014, the film began releasing internationally in the UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, and Japan, and television broadcasts in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Belgium, and Holland.. The film received an R rating from the MPAA for language and some sexual material.

Upon release, Anthony Weiner declined to endorse the film and claimed he had no intention of ever seeing the final product, saying "I already know how it ends."

After the film was released, Weiner claimed that "Kriegman had assured him verbally and in emails that he would not use Abedin in the film without her consent", and that Abedin never granted permission for Kriegman to use the footage. When asked if he will sue the filmmakers, Weiner didn't give a definitive answer. The filmmakers disputed Weiner's claim, stating that they clearly "had consent from everyone who appears in the film, including Anthony and Huma."[10]

Reception

Critical reception

The film received near universal acclaim by critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 96% approval rating based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Weiner uses sharp insight and untrammeled access to offer a portrait of a political and personal collapse that's as queasy as it is undeniably compelling."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[12]

Box office

The film performed decently, earning a worldwide box office total of $1,751,120 on an unknown budget. Of that $1,751,120, the film made $1,675,196 domestically and $75,924 internationally. The film is ranked #7,479 in the all-time domestic box office rankings and #11,109 in the international box office rankings. On a per-theater average, the film made about $16,835 per screen.

Best of lists

Accolades
Award Category Recipients and Nominees Outcome
Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Weiner Shortlist
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards Best Edited Documentary Feature Eli B. Despres Nominated
Austin Film Critics Association Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Australian Film Critics Association[22] Best Documentary Film (Local or International) Weiner Nominated
Awards Circuit Community Awards Best Documentary Feature Film Weiner Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Champs-Élysées Film Festival Prix du jury Weiner Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Chlotrudis Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Cinema Eye Honors Awards Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking Weiner Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Editing Eli B. Despres Nominated
Cinema Eye Audience Choice Prize Weiner Nominated
The Unforgettables Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner Won
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Best First Documentary (Theatrical Feature) Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg Won
Best Documentary Feature Weiner Nominated
Best Political Documentary Weiner Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society Best Documentary Film Weiner Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg Nominated
Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards Best Documentary Weiner Won
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association Documentary of the year Weiner Nominated
Georgia Film Critics Association Best Documentary Film Weiner Nominated
Gotham Awards Audience Award Weiner Nominated
Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Grierson British Documentary Awards Best Cinema Documentary Weiner Won
Hamburg Film Festival Political Film Award Weiner Nominated
Houston Film Critics Society Awards Best Documentary Feature Weiner Nominated
Indiana Film Journalists Association Best Documentary Weiner 2nd place
Indiewire Critics Poll Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Best First Feature Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg Nominated
International Documentary Association Best Feature Weiner Nominated
Iowa Film Critics Awards Best Documentary Weiner 3rd place
Jerusalem Film Festival Best International Film Weiner Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Montclair Film Festival David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking Weiner Won
Bruce Sinofsky Prize for Documentary Feature Weiner Nominated
New Hampshire Film Festival Audience Choice – Documentary Weiner Won
North Carolina Film Critics Association Best Documentary Film Weiner Nominated
North Texas Film Critics Association Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards Best Documentary Weiner 2nd Place
Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Best Documentary Film Weiner Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards Best Documentary Weiner Won
Sarasota Film Festival Special Jury Prize - Unprecedented Look at Politics in Crisis Weiner Won
Seattle Film Critics Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
St. Louis Film Critics Association Best Documentary Feature Weiner Nominated
Sundance Film Festival U.S. Grand Jury Prize – Documentary Weiner Won
Television Critics Association Outstanding Achievement in News and Information Weiner Nominated
Utah Film Critics Association Awards Best Documentary Feature Film Weiner 2nd place
Village Voice Film Poll Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards Best Documentary Weiner Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle Awards Worst Male Images in a Movie Weiner Nominated
Zurich Film Festival Best International Documentary Film Weiner Nominated
gollark: I sort of know it, or at least can write reasonably working code in it even if I don't have an intuitive grasp of the weird underlying category theory stuff, but it's really annoying to do the sort of things my code usually involves in it. It's great for stuff like compilers and complex algorithms at least.
gollark: Haskell is very useful if you need to comonadize a zygohistomorphic prepromorphism.
gollark: Something about "explore-exploit tradeoffs".
gollark: I have a book called "Algorithms to Live By" which I think mentions something like that.
gollark: Yes (I can apparently claim it), though weirdly they don't seem to have any actual pictures of it.

References
  1. "WEINER (15)". British Board of Film Classification. June 8, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  2. "Weiner (2016)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  7. Kohn, Eric (January 24, 2016). "Sundance Review: 'Weiner' is the Best Documentary About a Political Campaign Ever Made". IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  8. Bakare, Lanre (January 24, 2016). "Weiner review: an unsparing portrait of politics". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved August 20, 2018..
  10. Leibovich, Mark (August 18, 2016). "Anthony Weiner Says His Wife Never Agreed to That Documentary". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  11. "Weiner (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  12. "Weiner Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  13. Willmore, Alison (December 9, 2016). "Here Are The 11 Best Movies Of 2016". BuzzFeed. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  14. Schager, Nick (December 20, 2016). "The 10 Best Documentaries of 2016 That Are Trying to Change the World". Esquire. Hearst Communications. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  15. THR Staff. "Critics' Picks: The 10 Best Documentaries of the Year". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  16. Jacobs, Matthew (December 15, 2016). "The 21 Best Movies Of 2016". HuffPost. Oath. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  17. Kohn, Eric (December 5, 2016). "16 Best Movies of 2016". IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  18. The Editors of GQ (December 19, 2016). "The Best Movies of 2016". GQ. Condé Nast. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  19. Schonfeld, Zach; Firger, Jessica; Goodman, Leah Mcgrath; Raeburn, Paul; Westcott, Lucy; Noriega, Margarita; Toureille, Claire; Nazaryan, Alexander; Saville, Jordan; Burleigh, Nina; Roe, Bob; Walters, John (December 15, 2016). "The 21 best movies of 2016". Newsweek. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  20. Campbell, Christopher (January 8, 2017). "The Best Documentaries of 2016, Ranked". Thrillist. Group Nine Media. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  21. Freeman, Peter (December 31, 2016). "DC Outlook's Top 10 Movies of 2016". DC Outlook. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  22. "The 2017 AFCA Awards". Australian Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
Awards
Preceded by
The Wolfpack		 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary
2016		 Succeeded by
Dina
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