Writer’s Note: This review was written as part of the film’s 2018 SXSW premiere. Reading through the text, nothing was changed beyond adding dates to add context to events that are now out of the news cycle by some more extreme voices and recent events involving counter protests in the wake of the police reform protests, Alt-Right: The Age of Rage couldn’t have hit Netflix at a better time.
As a reflection of the current, hostile political climate, Alt-Right: The Age of Rage will be a Rorschach test. Director Adam Bhala Lough doesn’t spend time trying to convince his audience that one side of the aisle is right or wrong. Each side will likely agree with half of the interviewees and reject the other. It certainly illustrates there’s no grey area regarding the battle between white supremacy and anti-fascists.
It’s self-aware enough to justify giving radical conservatives like Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor — both instrumental to the Charlottesville riot — ample screen time, explaining that ignoring this movement isn’t practical in the age or rage, fueled by the internet.
Unlike in the 1950s when the media muffled the American Nazi party, everyone has access to a platform today. For the mainstream media to ignore dangerous views and the people behind them is reckless. There’s a fear that amplifying extremist views will normalize them, but Lough and his team show it’s possible to spend time with both sides without normalizing or humanizing them. They are true flies on the wall, and half of the film’s intrigue is how they’re able to capture all this footage and creating a fresh narrative.
Before the film, I had concerns this would be a rehash of Jorge Ramos’ Hate Rising which gaslit the rise of the white supremacy unleashed by Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Trump’s name is mentioned no more than 10 times throughout, it only sits in the peripherals. Ramos took similar steps with fringe groups like a modern KKK group to explain their beliefs but in comparison to The Age of Rage, lacked the immediacy a clear narrative.
The Age of Rage is bookended by the 2017 Charlottesville riot, not as a means of stamping that on as justification for the film’s existence but because the film crew was tracking what was going as it happened. Given seemingly unlimited access to Spencer and Taylor, sitting in on white separatist meetings and entering private residences for candid interviews the media rarely see, the crew sees all the events that led to the eruption in Virginia.
Some of the discussion becomes grating, holding tiring talking points of both sides. But more often than not, it’s illuminating conversation, especially for viewers that don’t follow Daryle Lamont Jenkins on the left or have tuned out Jared Taylor on the far right. Even on a micro level, explanations from Spencer about the layers of the alt-right are insightful.
As a blanket term for the alternative right movement Spencer started about a decade ago, there’s often a misconception what its followers stand for. There are three sections on the far right spectrum, as Spencer explains. There’s the alt-lite which accepts gay rights but is anti-feminist and anti-political correctness. Then the alt-right is more so authoritarian, encourages separation of races and advocates anti-semitism. Finally, there are the loons, the Neo-Nazis. Lumping all three together only causes more frustration, failing to understand what everyone actually stands for.
The film doesn’t dare try to give a solution to the problems but at least acknowledges that we’re not necessarily divided as much as we’re just frustrated. Discourse like The Age of Right encourage is at the very least a stepping stone and makes for an essential viewing.
Overall Grade: 7.5 out of 10
