I’m having difficulty writing about Hoaxed in much the same way I had difficulty writing a review of Scott Adams’ Win Bigly or Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos. So difficult that I didn’t post a review of either of those books.

Because I keep my eyes open to what’s going on in the “new right,” there was very little “new” information (for me) in those books, which makes me think they’re not relevant and therefore not worth passing on.

What I forget is that while something may not be new to me, it can still be new to others.

That’s why I’m writing about Hoaxed.

Hoaxed focuses on fake news—hit pieces, media manipulation, rhetoric.

“All media is narrative,” states Mike Cernovich to open the documentary, “And we’re in a war of narratives.”

For the next 2 hours, Cerno takes us on a tour of the underbelly of the media: talking to the subjects of media hitpieces (“I know all about the rotting cadaver that is Washington”—Anthony Scaramucci), exposing tactics of manipulation  (“All photographs are accurate, and none of them are the truth”—Peter Duke), and providing historical accounts (such as the utter lie that led to the first Gulf War).

During this guided tour, Mike (or others speaking for him—such as a great segment with Ryan Holiday) also shows us how he himself uses media tactics to get attention and influence. The “funhouse mirror” effect.

But the spotlight isn’t limited to Mike. “New media” plays a big role in Hoaxed as the hero—the people who are out taking action with what Tim Pool describes as an “entrepreneurial attitude.”

When Tim describes how he runs a one-man shop, doing the work that would take 4-5 people in the mainstream media, I can understand why they hate the new media so much.

It brings to mind another new media figure who is also hated by the mainstream media: Pewdiepie. His segment “Pew News” gets more views than any mainstream media show. He beats them at their own game while mocking them mercilessly (“But I’m not supposed to share my opinion!”), and they can’t do anything about it. The more hitpieces they write about him, the higher his credibility grows.

Speaking of YouTube, the visual style of this documentary owes a great debt to it. In fact, for a documentary about the news, it feels much more like a YouTube videoessay than a ponderous 60-minutes style news show. I’m going to bet that’s deliberate.

The visual style bounces all over the place, switching emotional tone as we are guided through the movie’s narrative. The directors (Scooter Downey and Jon du Toit) use a myriad of clips from media sources to frame each topic—using newscasters’ own voices to convict them.

I especially like the tactic of layering a voiceover onto completely different footage. This can be used for comic relief—talking about an “artful dodge” over a clip of George W Bush ducking out of the way of a flying shoe—but also for dramatic effect—layering someone else’s recitation of a Trump comment over footage of Trump himself speaking, breaking the “spell” that’s normally cast when voice and image go together.

This technique is used to great effect in the comic version of Watchmen to advance multiple narrative threads at once, and it works well in Hoaxed.

My main issue with Hoaxed is that it feels a little bit like preaching to the choir. The film does highlight media hoaxes that pertain to other tribes—like Black Lives Matter and the abominable treatment of Bernie Sanders at the 2016 DNC—but the treatment of each subject feels covered with a veneer of MAGAism. (Almost like the film is trying to wake up the MAGA crowd more than reach across the aisle.)

Back in college, I took a mass media course from an acerbic long-haired hippie who brought in his guitar to demonstrate resonance and taught us about yellow journalism and how the media acts as a PR machine for the government (or, to be more precise, the deep state). Far left guys like him have long been critical of the establishment media, and their voices would have added depth to this film.

I would have loved to hear from someone like Caitlin Johnstone, for example.

But that’s okay. Hoaxed is still a worthwhile movie. It’s one that you can watch with friends, and have a meaty conversation afterwards. I watched it with my brother, and we stayed up half the night talking.

One of the reasons for that is the ending. Hoaxed ends on a perfect note—Stefan Molyneux’s telling of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” Stefan weaves a beautiful story, and the directors shot compelling cave footage that illustrates the point beautifully.

Never before had I connected the “Allegory of the Cave” with the life and death of Jesus Christ, but this film—without explicitly stating it—illuminated a little bit more of how Christ, a man, is also the logos, the Truth, the Word.

So that leaves us with…the most despairing of all happy endings? I struggle to describe this. I love the ending, because it’s so hopeful. We can leave behind our chains and embrace Truth. We can turn away from the darkness of the cave to the Light of Life.

Yet we cannot force others to see, or to leave behind the shadows of the cave.

Where we cannot change minds, we can plant seeds. Provide little off-ramps from groupthink. Poke holes in accepted narratives. Reach out to people who are questioning.

And Hoaxed provides a way to do this.

 

Disclosure: I backed the Hoaxed project on Kickstarter.