There was so much misinformation and fact-tweaking in this film, I don't know where to begin. I have a real problem how AA was used to argue that addicts are shamed to hide in "church basements" or made to feel badly about their addiction. What? Is addiction something we should now be proud of? If addiction isn't something to feel bad about, then why they try to recover from it? If people want to change the attitude of the general public about addicts, then maybe we should start asking Hollywood to start making inspiring films about recovery instead of glamorizing drugs in films like Pulp Fiction. Maybe I heard wrong, but the film also states that people in AA feel that they are somehow forbidden to reveal their addition and recovery efforts. That is not true. Anyone in the program is perfectly free to share their addiction status with anyone. They cannot, however, reveal other addicts' identities to the public. I applaud any celebrity who comes forward to talk about addition and recovery, but don't start bullying others to do so. One doesn't want to tell his/her neighbor, or employer or insurance company that one is an addict, or even a recovering addict. In the film, it was stated that anyone interested in getting clean cannot do so any time or any day because there is no open clinic 24/7. Not true either. One can call anyone in an AA program 24/7 and receive support and help. The AA program is untainted by commercialism, bureaucracy, and political manipulation. No lobbyists can get their claws into the AA organization. That seemed to frustrate the people in this movie when they spoke of AA members as an unharnessed voting demographic. "Oh hi! Welcome to the neighborhood addiction recovery clinic. Just fill in these 25 forms so we can get you processed. Don't forget your SS number and insurance policy number. And while you are at it, why don't you register to vote? And while you are here, fill in this absentee ballot..." We don't need lobbyists soliciting big bucks for phony recovery programs. We don't need more government run clinics. We don't need any more phony politicians making any more phony speeches about their phony recoveries. Just leave AA alone let the volunteers continue to do the good work they have been doing in church basements as they have done for the past 70 years or so. Not being to regulate or capitalize on AA organization must really frustrate people who believe in government run social programs.
Review of The Anonymous People
