Weiner Documentary 'Never Stops Making You Gasp'

Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg planned to document Anthony Weiner's rise from the ashes as he campaigned for New York City mayor in 2013 following that infamous sexting scandal. But a triumphant return to politics is not what was caught on film. Get ready for one of the most intimate documentaries in recent memory. Here's what critics are saying:

• Weiner "takes us to a place we never thought any politician would let us see" and "never stops making you gasp," writes Will Leitch at the New Republic. "It is packed with holy-s--- moments," including several private ones between Weiner and wife Huma Abedin. At one point, you see Abedin "realize, too late, just what a dips--- [she] married," Leitch writes.
• "This film doesn't lionize Weiner or justify anything he did" but you might walk away with a different impression of him, particularly after seeing his near-confrontation with a sexting partner on election night, writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. The doc spotlights "the frenzy of politics, the iron-clad egos of politicians, and the failure of the media to cover the parts of campaigning and government that actually matter."

• "Viewers hankering for a deeply examined portrayal of Weiner may be disappointed," writes Gary Goldstein at the Los Angeles Times. But there are plenty of "awkward, squirm-inducing, shameless, even clueless moments," so much so "that we feel more intimate with the film's star than we may have the right to." The result is an "absorbing, entertaining film."
• Rafer Guzman goes so far as to call this "one of the best political documentaries you’ll ever see." From Weiner "rehearsing his apology speech for maximum sincerity" to "facing his wife after the latest revelations … each scene is more jaw-dropping than the last," he writes at Newsday. It's a story of "a promising politician undone by hubris. And as the movie suggests, we may not have heard the last of him yet."

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