The Final Year
Greg Barker's documentary follows President Obama's team during his final year in office. Despite this unprecedented access, the resulting film is disappointingly disjointed
Considering the access that the team behind The Final Year was granted, it’s frustrating that it hasn’t resulted in a better movie. Documentarian Greg Barker spent 90 days following Barack Obama and his team (primarily John Kerry, Samantha Power and Ben Rhodes) during the final months of his presidency, but the 90-minute movie he has assembled feels disjointed and light on revelatory material; and yet, his film will possess a strong emotional impact for many viewers, for reasons outside of the film’s scope.
Much of The Final Year emphasises the Obama administration’s belief in diplomacy over antagonism and conflict, and it’s inspiring to watch people determined to leave the world in a better place than they found it, but the twist of Trump’s election at the end of the film is a punch to the gut. Our knowledge that the incoming administration would spend the next year dismantling much of what Obama built gives The Final Year a resonance that it wouldn’t have had if Hillary Clinton had prevailed last November. It already feels like a documentary of a long-lost era. [Philip Concannon]