Premise: A documentary about the political rival that Putin poisoned and how that story was exposed.
I suck. I'm not that tied into the news. I should pay more attention. At some point though, I made an unconscious decision that I wasn't going to seek it out. The big stories will get to me, and I'll look into them then. Otherwise, I have little interest in sifting through the filler between actual events of significance. I'm not a "fake news" person. I'm a "too much news" person. I accept whatever judgment comes my way for that.
This does mean that I get to really enjoy every step of a documentary like Navalny. I knew next to nothing about Alexei Navalny before this movie. I recall a story about a poisoned rival of Putin's. It was one of those stories that already matched my perception of Putin, so it wasn't worth exploring deeper. I'm not that interested in deepening my confirmation bias if I can help it. Getting to hear the full story in this doc was wonderful. Even better, it turns into an investigative journalism story. The highlight, of course is when they trick the Russian chemist into confirming the entire plot/conspiracy. You simply never expect a moment like that to be real, so it's incredible watching it really happen. Even if you know Navalny's story, this is still really valuable for the how.
The movie does show its slant a little too much at times. Navalny is clearly a skilled politician which carries a healthy dose of egomania with it. It sometimes felt like the filmmakers were happy to turn the film over to him a little too often. The end result was that instead of watching this like a profile of an inspiring person, I watched it more like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Still, a very worthwhile doc.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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