Stormy (2024)

Stormy Review

On the opening night of the 2024 South by Southwest Film Festival, Doug Liman’s remake of “Road House” may have taken up most of the oxygen but in a parallel cinematic universe just next door and around the same time, a major event in the life of one of the strangest public figures of the past decade was taking place. “Stormy” is about Stormy Daniels, and there are few names that elicit as strong an emotional reaction around the world. Those who forgive Donald Trump any crime or sin have turned her into a villain, seeing her only as someone out for money and fame. A larger and larger faction sees her as an empowered woman who fearlessly insisted on not being called a liar by one of the most powerful men in history. I’d like to think even those critics could be moved by this movie because it’s ultimately about stripping away politics and showing another person to be a human being with feelings and fears but that’s probably wishful thinking.

People on one end of our political spectrum see all enemies of Trump as their own. It isn’t so much that they don’t believe campaign money was used to keep quiet an affair between Trump and Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels; it’s that they don’t care if he did. The facts are still true whether or not Trump came around (and around) eventually to admitting most of them, though Daniels herself has been very open about what happened between her and him before then: several encounters in which he promised to get her on “Celebrity Apprentice,” plus one time they slept together, something she says she didn’t really want to do but also didn’t resist doing. In fact she’s often quite nice when discussing him on this level, talking about how she thought he might appreciate her mind at least as much as her body which wouldn’t be unreasonable; Daniels is smart as hell, parlaying her experience into a lucrative career as an adult film director and businesswoman.

The trouble didn’t really start until the story of the affair broke, and Trump denied it, calling Daniels a liar. Unlike most people he’s targeted, though, she fought back Cohen eventually admitted to paying her off, Trump played games with how much he knew about that; Giuliani ended up saying Trump himself had paid Cohen back. Cohen was charged with campaign finance violations, sentenced to three years in prison and disbarred; but as is often the case, Trump skated off to another scandal while leaving Daniels to deal with death threats and other forms of harassment.

Judd Apatow produced “Stormy” which mainly features Stormy’s own voice but also includes interviews with Seth Rogen, Jimmy Kimmel and a few other famous friends. Whatever you think of Daniels, I would hope we could agree that she shouldn’t have to fear for the safety of herself or her child. It uses a lot of footage from 2018 when Daniels started producing a documentary herself and so it is able to get closer to this national scandal than any other work has thus far by humanizing the subject. The threats reached such a peak that there’s a heartbreaking scene in which she basically talks about the filmmakers using her footage as proof of what’s been happening should she be murdered. “Stormy” is about a woman who had to live in fear, watched her marriage collapse, was harassed constantly all because she undeniably, provably told the truth about money.

Yes, she’s made some money on book deals but people say this like it invalidates everything else she’s done or said as if Trump hasn’t used every position he’s ever been in as an opportunity for cashing out. But no one pays that high of price.

I’m sure most people have already decided how they feel about Stormy Daniels at this point, but I still believe somebody could watch this movie and see something inspiring or at least enough courage to stand up against whoever is trying ruin their life too! Or calling them liars just because they know they can get away with it! Produced by Judd Apatow.

The only thing worse than being wrong is not standing up for what you believe in even when nobody else does either especially if more people were willing to do so then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all?

Watch Stormy For Free On Gomovies.