The Dark Money Game

As Episode 1 of "The Dark Money Game" (2025 release; 2 episodes of 115 min each), we get "Ohio Confidential", a blistering indictment of how dark money has poisoned the wells of Ohio GOP politics, leading to the largest bribery scandal in the state's history. I am a longtime (3+ decades) resident of Ohio and was generally familiar with this, but seeing all the details as laid out clearly in this documentary only made it worse.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from writer-producer-director (and Oscar winning) Alex Gibney, possibly THE documentarian of this generation. Episode 2 is titled "Wealth of the Wicked", and the theme running through both episodes is the long-term catastrophic consequences of the Citizens United decision by the US Supreme Court in 2010. Now 15 years later, it has become the all-encompassing monster of politics, where unlimited money by unknown donors dominate politics on all levels. Just look at what has become of Ohio. For decades and decades a bell-weather state. Now, with the Ohio GOP's relentless and extreme gerrymandering of voting districts, the Ohio GOP controls everything, and blatantly and brazenly disregards Ohio Supreme Court rulings that it does not like. And get this: the Ohio Speaker of the House, found guilty on all charges (and currently serving 20 years in jail) was nevertheless re-elected in his voting district (and promptly kicked out of the House). If you are for democracy and accountability and transparency and honesty, I can almost guarantee you that this movie will get under your skin and make you very, very upset and frustrated. Kudos to Gibney and the rest of his team for the thorough examination and exposure of the facts.

"The Dark Money Game" premiered on HBO earlier this week, and is now also streaming on Max, where I caught this. If you have any interest in politics and in particular the dark powers being it all, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

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Ignore any whining, biased political hack reviews. In Ohio, this happens to be about a Republican state legislator scumbag. In other states, it's Democrats. The protagonist and enemy isn't a political party, it's money. If you check your politics at door, and aren't from Ohio, this story is very interesting. You don't need to be an astronomer to know the sun is hot, and similarly, you don't need to be on the jury to know the truth here. Dark pool 501(4)(c)'s are great for politicians (right & left) but terrible for rest of the population. The documentary intrigues without being hyperbolic. Only gets a 7 because, let's face it, real life state politics not as exciting as The Wire, Breaking Bad, or GOT. High bar to get an 8 and above. In letter grades, this is a B+.

If this documentary had been about state politics in Illinois, California, Washington State. The result would have been the same. But HBO is not interested in those states because their agenda is about exposing the right. Every crooked politician regardless of party is a scumbag so it's worth watching to educate yourself about campaign finance, redistricting etc. No issue when facts are laid out bare and of course I welcome opinion by those interviewed. But the production trickery turns what should be an educational documentary into a Michael Moore production. Case in point, episode 1 opening scene. Pro abortion protestors outside and inside the state house. The narrator explains how over 60% of Ohio voters approve of abortion but the legislation is majority Republican and pass some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. Then goes on to say that these republican lawmakers are all smiling and laughing it up at the expense of the protestors while the camera pans to these lawmakers smiling and laughing.....it's obvious this did not happen during proceedings. It was either before or after as lawmakers were chatting with their colleagues. Watch it. Judge for yourself.

Checked out this new HBO 'documentary'. Supposedly about the influence of dark money on the political system, all it turned out to be is another piece of leftist propaganda.

Frankly I expected better from Gibney, but I'm not surprised as he bought into the Russian influence hoax, perpetuated by killary.

The decline has been gradual, but he has fallen far since his outstanding documentary about Enron: the smartest guys in the room.

He should stick with neutral material, like It Might Get Loud, which is a great film about contempary guitarists and their influence on modern rock and roll.

This is a one star, as I can't rate it zero.

The low ratings are from people who disagree with the political aspects of this doc. It's so unfortunate, because this is absolutely essential viewing. Citizens United changed the very nature of our election process. We have needed campaign finance reform for a long time. Candidates are spending millions per election now. Third party and independents barely get their names out there. It's very rare that someone not from the two main parties can get elected. Both parties are so powerful and corrupt, we are often left with choosing the least bad candidate.

This doc shares simple facts. I'm sure one could be made about Democrats, too. So put your feelings aside and absorb the message. We have to fight for our democracy now more than ever.