America

America

In 2012, political commentator, author, disgraced former university president and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza released “2016: Obama’s America,” a documentary that claimed to investigate the president’s past in order to expose his concealed agenda which could destroy our country if not stopped.

Though the film was ridiculed by most reviewers (it didn’t get advance critics screenings so there weren’t many reviews when it opened and then supporters could say it was being ignored by the lamestream media), and many of its findings and conclusions were widely debunked by scholars, journalists and other people who for some reason rely on things like facts, it was a hit with conservative audiences and would go on to make $33 million at the box office, making it the second highest-grossing political documentary ever behind only “Fahrenheit 9/11” ($119 million more than that one).

Now he is back with “America,” which comes on the heels of an ad campaign that suggested it might be some kind of alternate history tale speculating what would have happened if George Washington had been killed by a British bullet during the Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777 for those playing along at home) and we had lost the Revolutionary War and never became the United States.

But anyone hoping for what sounds like a cross between “It’s a Wonderful Life,” that immortal anti-Communist short “Red Nightmare” and an evening of watching History Channel will be disappointed to learn that after a brief prologue in this movie, which then abandons that conceit entirely never to return again. If there is any consolation for those viewers, it is that they will soon be sharing their disappointment with anyone else who came expecting logical thought or basic filmmaking skills.

Having seen all of his predictions about what would happen if Obama won in “2016: Obama’s America” come true his view of what would happen, not actual history D’Souza finds himself looking at his adopted country and wondering why so many people seem to want to destroy it by undoing everything that made it great in order to make it into some kind of socialist nightmare.

And he also wants to get down to the bottom of what ideas monsters like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore and the rest of the radical cabal use as a justification for their alleged hatred of America that we stole this land from the Indians and then committed genocide against them, that we took over a huge chunk of Mexico as well, that we are trying to control the world and all its resources but especially oil, that there is an obscene level of income inequality in this country which leaves almost all our wealth in the hands of a few people and also slavery. And somehow D’Souza manages to disprove all those claims.

Most of his theories and suppositions are at best confusing (he gives the example that Obama supported the bank bailouts but doesn’t say under whose presidency they occurred) and at worst ridiculous (like when he says that Matt Damon is the true face of income inequality because he made a lot of money from those Jason Bourne movies) and will probably be picked apart in the coming weeks, though I won’t take issue with it on those grounds, save to ask why he left the telling of the Texas-Mexico conflict to Canadian-born Ted Cruz.

What I am supposed to do is talk about how this movie works as a movie, and on that level it fails utterly; D’Souza has directed this film alongside John Sullivan (who also directed “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” another big conservative-leaning documentary), and between them they have put together something that looks awful, plods along with all the verve of a PowerPoint presentation, boasts some truly cheesy occasional dramatic recreations, and features interview footage so needlessly over-edited that you can practically feel things getting moved around in the cutting room.

Now I’m not suggesting that they’ve fudged any of these conversations, just presented them in such a way as to make them look fudged. Say what you will about Michael Moore at least his films look slick and professional even when he’s bending the narrative as needed (which is one reason they generate so much controversy); this thing looks like a junior college multimedia project returned with “See Me” written in red ink in the corner.

For that matter, Moore is also an entertaining screen presence; nobody’s ever said anything like that about D’Souza before or since. He has no screen presence whatsoever, his interview style veers from fawning to absurdly combative without ever touching down anywhere close to “interested,” and he sweats untrustworthiness so copiously throughout this film that he ends up undermining whatever arguments he might have had a chance of successfully making.

The solitary example of when the United States of America mythical, inspiring; one of the most powerful words in any language comes to life in “America” is during its final moments. But having already knocked down all the reasons why good, God-fearing people might hate this country, the movie sets out to discover who wants to destroy everything and why. It turns out that person is Saul Alinsky. He’s also behind it. All of it! The lefty architect whose organizing lessons (from Frank Nitti) helped bring together hippies and community organizers for well, you know what comes next.

So Obama was just his most famous disciple but he doesn’t run for office anymore so who could be next? Wait for it: Hillary Clinton. She uses her power to steer Alinsky into even more dangerous realms. Which means we get entertainingly staged scenes in which Hillary (“under the spell of a Methodist minister”) meets with Alinsky (made up to look like the creepy stranger offering kids candy and a ride in his van from an old Sid Davis social hygiene short) in back rooms so she can get her marching orders.

Thanks to them, we’re now living in a land where we find out an average guy can somehow commit three felonies a day without even knowing.

By this point, D’Souza has yet to mention his recent conviction on campaign finance charges (he pleaded guilty last month), let alone show himself sitting handcuffed in a cell presumably because he’s saving that for later, as part of his transformation into another kind of martyr or something.

But wait: Is that a shot of him sitting handcuffed in a cell? It is! You’re supposed to be outraged by it! Or at least giggle at it!

After this section ends and yes, it’s inadvertently hilarious and overwrought, but at least there’s some energy “America” lapses into a kind of PowerPoint coma. It’s like the cinematic equivalent of one of those forwarded e-mails full of mostly discredited “facts” that you get from your Uncle Kevin, only without even the fun value of old family photos or a decent meat loaf recipe.

Watch America For Free On Gomovies.