HOW HE GRABBED AMERICA BY THE VOTE.

After Mark Halperin and John Heilemann spent months and months covering the 2016 presidential election for the Showtime series The Circus, this summary in the shape of a documentary feature was quickly assembled.

The amount of footage is overwhelming, but the filmmakers focus on the winner, Donald Trump, and his campaign. Lots of behind-the-scenes encounters, most memorably with Trump’s former advisor, the eccentric Roger Stone.

The film moves very quickly through primaries, scandals and election night – but it’s all a bit pointless for those who paid attention at the time, and if you didn’t the pace is so hurried that a lot of the craziness barely makes sense. Pretty slapdash.

2017-U.S. 105 min. Color. Directed by Ted Bourne, Mary Robertson, Banks Tarver. 

Trivia: Premiered at the Sundance festival, then shown on TV. Stone was also chronicled in the documentary Get Me Roger Stone the same year.