the undefeated*

and the reviews are pouring in ...

richard corliss, time magazine:

"divine"

[director stephen k.] "bannon applies so much idolatrous airbrushing to his portrait of the divine sarah that the movie might be called going rouge."

"may tempt even the most ardent conservatives to emulate their idol"

"the movie may tempt even the most ardent conservatives to emulate their idol's tenure as governor and walk out halfway through."

"the michael moore
of the hard right"

"bannon could be the michael moore of the hard right — if he had some saving sense of humor and if anyone paid to see his movies."

anna merlan, the village voice:

"glowing"

"the movie, which charts her career as mayor of wasilla and governor of alaska, is less a documentary than a glowing two-hour infomercial for sarah palin, presidential candidate to-be."

"without blemish"

"this cartoonish version of real life is paired with a just-as-caricatured view of palin, who in this retelling is entirely without blemish, physical or political, and incapable of missteps."

"honest"

"in one stump speech shown near the end of the undefeated, palin exclaims brightly, "there’s nothing wrong in america a good ol'-fashioned election can't fix!" that's about as honest as this piece of propaganda."

robert abele, los angeles times:

"dizzying"

"a troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by michael bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing."

"a real person"

"visually, she comes off less like a real person and more like a feisty, smiling, news-clip spirit, thumping the walls via press conference/stump speech footage, minus the on-air moments, such as her gaffe-riddled katie couric interview ..."

"from-the-heart"

"... sound bites come off like well-rehearsed testimonials rather than from-the-heart tidbits from intimates and confidantes."

todd mccarthy, the hollywood reporter:

"a must-see"

"nothing about the film earmarks it as a must-see anywhere other than in the living rooms of die-hard loyalists."

"meaningful"

"once you realize the film is just going to be a string of encomiums against a backdrop of frantically edited archival material in which few shots are allowed to stay onscreen longer than three seconds, it's clear that no meaningful analysis of the woman's career or political agenda will be forthcoming."

joe leydon, variety:

"a history lesson"

"faster than the speed of thought, "the undefeated" is a history lesson designed for students with minimal attention spans."

"undefeated"

"political junkies eager to know more about palin's vice-presidential campaign are similarly out of luck. "the undefeated" gives the 2008 election only cursory treatment — maybe because she was, you know, defeated in that one ..."

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* with apologies to mad magazine ...