The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

2016 | Documentary, Politics

Synopsis

When Donald Trump says, "This election is rigged"-he should know. His buddies are rigging it. Rolling Stone investigative reporter Greg Palast busted Jeb Bush for stealing the 2000 election by purging Black voters from Florida's electoral rolls. Now Palast is back to take a deep dive into the Republicans' dark operation, Crosscheck, designed to steal a million votes by November. Crosscheck is controlled by a Trump henchman, Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State who claims his computer program has identified 7.2 million people in 29 states who may have voted twice in the same election--a felony crime. The catch? Most of these "suspects" are minorities-in other words, mainly Democratic voters. Yet the lists and the evidence remain "confidential." Palast and his investigative partner Leni Badpenny do what it takes to get their hands on the data, analyzing it to find the names of nearly one million Americans about to lose their vote by November. They hunt down and confront Kobach with the evidence of his "lynching by laptop." Then they are off to find the billionaires behind this voting scam. The search takes Palast from Kansas to the Arctic, the Congo, and to a swanky Hamptons dinner party held by Trump's sugar-daddy, John Paulson, a.k.a. "JP The Foreclosure King." Palast and BadpennyThey stake out top GOP donors, the billionaire known as "The Vulture" and the Koch brothers, whom Palast nails with a damning tape recording. In this real life detective story brought to life in a film noir style with cartoon animation, secret documents, hidden cameras, and a little help from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit detectives, Ice-T and Richard Belzer, Shailene Woodley, Rosario Dawson, Willie Nelson and Ed Asner, Palast and his associates expose the darkest plans of the uber-rich to steal America's democracy.

Scores

Overall Score
27.2
Popularity Percentile (Year)
20.6%
Box Office Percentile (Year)
20.6%
Review Aggregate
54.0

Critic Consensus

50.0% Fresh • 8 critic reviews

Critic reception is mixed, with 50% of 8 logged reviews marked Fresh. Across reviews, critics repeatedly emphasize stylized, noir, funny. Common reservations focus on execution consistency, even when reviewers praise standout elements.

stylizednoirfunnythought-provokingpoliticalcharacter-driven

Cast

CastYearReported SalaryInflation AdjustedNotes
N/A

Aggregated Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes critic score50.0
RT critic review count8
Rotten Tomatoes audience score50.0
RT audience rating count1,000
IMDb rating6.6
IMDb votes167

Box Office ?

CategoryYearReportedInflation Adjusted
Domestic2016$29,500$38,559
International2016N/AN/A
Worldwide2016$29,500$38,559

Earnings / Profitability

Estimated net revenues and net expenses for films based on reported and estimated numbers. This income statement should be considered most viable for the first 24 months after the inital movie's release (ie after most lucrative pay windows).
CategoryYearReportedInflation Adjusted
Revenues
Theatrical Net Revenue2016$14,750$19,279
Digital Rentals ?2016$755,000$986,848
Digital Purchases ?2016$770,000$1,006,454
Physical Rentals ?2016$663,000$866,596
Physical Purchases ?2016$1,872,000$2,446,860
TV & Streaming Revenue2016$71,400$93,326
Total Revenues2016$4,146,150$5,419,364
Expenses
Budget ?2016$238,000 (est)$311,086 (est)
Print & Advertising (P&A) ?2016$80,000 (est)$104,567 (est)
Participations2016$166,000$216,976
Residuals ?2016$229,000$299,322
Interest & Overhead2016$47,600$62,217
Total Expenses2016$760,600$994,168
Movie Net Profit or Loss2016$3,385,550$4,425,196

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