By the People: The Election of Barack Obama

This film manages to take an incredible story of historic proportions and scale, and make it look and feel like a microbudget crappy indy film that drags on and on with just lots of talking and no structure. The vast scale of the events and inauguration are completely lost in this film, making the entire thing feel incredibly small. This is basically just two hours of a bunch of poorly lit people rambling in ugly back rooms. Just terrible. Worst thing I've seen bearing the HBO logo.

Fluffy but enjoyable and engrossing record of Obama's ascent to the White House; takes the form of a genial and well-meaning campaign video for the most part, which means there is very little feel for the undoubted strains and pressures of the campaign (though the sense of tired relief at the climax goes some way towards correcting this!); this means the film occasionally loses its sense of dramatic thrust. Still a fine piece; probably recommended for fans/supporters only!

Babby's first political disenchantment.