Weiner

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner gets caught in a sexting scandal and resigns in June 2011. He decides to reenter politics by running for Mayor of New York. His campaign in the Democratic primary in 2013 starts to pick up speed when a second sexting scandal erupts. His wife Huma Abedin again comes to his side but the campaign flounders. Weiner is no doubt a compelling Shakespearian tragic figure. Once his scandal erupts again, this gets very uncomfortable at times. The central star becomes the mysterious Huma. In some respects, she's the Spinx holding back her secrets. In other respects, her looks could kill and she speaks volumes with her silence.

As a New Yorker who voted in the mayoral election that is depicted in this film.....ahhh, if I had only known better.

Weiner is a politician who had a sex/porn/internet problem and it didn't disappear the minute he was publicly disgraced. Yet, he was an excellent politician, without a doubt a better candidate than the one I voted for. And yet, the story that was most in the news at the time (and shown in this film) was his poor judgement about his personal life, and negligible press about his competency as a champion for the middle class. Furthermore, the timeline of the Sydney Leathers relationship was hardly prominent. I hadn't realized it was over a year earlier. (Albeit better if it had been five years earlier though.)

History is replete with great leaders who had amoral sex lives, not the least Harding who had an illegitimate child shortly before his election as our 29th president. We won't even discuss what happened in JFK's life, and yet the public forgives him.

In no way do I think Weiner should be condoned for acting so inappropriately while being a public servant, but it would also be great if we could focus on POLITICAL competency instead of extramarital sexual blunders. As I see it, when Donald Trump is the GOP nominee with all his sexual improprieties, obviously it's all about the media. And to me, that is the true essence of this documentary. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MEDIA.

My takeaway, although cliché, is that it's the media's storyline, which panders to the readers' lowest common interest -- bringing serious consequences to our politics today.

I really like the documentary because it does not editorialize. There is not one voice over in the whole thing. It is just Anthony Weiner ramping up his attempt to win the Democratic Mayoral primary, which in New York, is tantamount to winning the mayor's race since the city is overwhelmingly Democratic. Weiner had been the seven term liberal firebrand of a Democratic congressman from Brooklyn until a case of him sexting a woman along with pictures of his private parts came to light and caused him to resign in disgrace in 2011.

His campaign starts out with hope in the spring of 2013, but soon with his rise in the polls, more sexting by Weiner rises to the surface because he is in the limelight again. He tries to paper over it, and the documentary lets you see him trying to paper over it, by saying that he had already said he had problems in his marriage and that he had never said exactly when the sexting problem began and ended. This sounded too much like "it depends on what your definition of is is" from the Clinton years and he crashed and burned politically, winding up in the single digits on primary day.

This is no fluff piece. You see Weiner lose his temper, get involved in shouting matches with a guy in a Deli, and with Lawrence O'Donnell on liberal friendly MSNBC. Weiner thinks it makes him look like a fighter, instead it comes across as a refusal to face his problems. And as for his wife Huma Abadin, I just felt so sorry for her. Weiner must be surely suffering from an addiction if he is chasing after random women on the internet with such a smart sexy lady as his wife. After the more recent sexting comes to light, Huma never really says anything, but you can tell by her posture and look of indifference that she is likely mad as hell under that calm cool exterior. Worse, she is probably profoundly disappointed in someone who had regained her trust.

One particular scene said it all for me as to Weiner's self centeredness. When the additional sexting comes to light he tells Huma he wants her with him all day. Not because he is worried about her mental state or needs her emotional support, but because he is "afraid someone (the press) will get to her".

It's too bad that such a narcissist and sex addict was also rolled into the personality of somebody who seemed to genuinely care about average people, had an average upbringing so he knew where other people were coming from, and was willing to fight for what he thought was right. What a waste.

"I did a lot of things. But I did a lot of other things, too." Anthony Weiner

The tragicomic story of seven-term congressman from New York, Anthony Weiner, is almost too absurd to be true. After resigning from Congress over sexting, while waging a vigorous 2013 campaign for mayor of NYC, Weiner is disclosed to have texted again visions of his maleness to other women than his wife, Huma Abedin. The tragedy is that this aide to then Senator Hillary Clinton is an accomplished woman, totally undeserving the abject humiliation her husband's sexting has caused her.

Filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg in this fascinating doc called Weiner gained permission from him to film his most intimate moments of the campaign, especially with his wife while his tech-straying disgrace is made public. While for us commoners, such peccadilloes amount to little in a public forum (but much, of course, in the personal arena), these moments are heart-rending to see: This accomplished wife forces herself, with barely a smile, to support her husband.

The ancient Greeks knew well the flaws and foibles of celebrities gone wild. In this revelation of hubris, an overweening pride that comes before the fall, even the tragedians might not have dared to show the Congressman sexting even after his initial exposure (so to speak). Yes, he sends photos of his masculinity to a 22 year old woman, who will complete his ignominy by revealing them to a press overjoyed at a second round.

The despair is that he had seemingly come back into the good graces of the public, only to be outed again and lose that support and the mayoral primary to Bill DeBlasio. The documentary is there for the grand moments of revelation and shame, none more poignant than privately with his wife, who seems almost shell-shocked by the new revelation.

Unfortunately, the quotes at the beginning of this review are the most insight we ever get, despite the filmmakers' intimacy, to help us understand why such a gifted populist should so carelessly toss away his position and reputation. Perhaps his wife's mute incredulity stands for our own.

In the end we must conclude with a saying never more appropriate than here: "Who knows the secrets of the human heart?"

Greetings again from the darkness. Normally I would have no interest in a movie with this title, but in this case, it's a chance to get a glimpse into the psychological make-up of a guy who obliterated his own political career … by simply being unable to keep his privates private. The end result of the efforts from filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg is nearly unrestricted access to a NYC mayor candidate's campaign, as well as a look at a politician that is at times tense, and other times funny (in a laughing AT you kind of way).

In 2011, seven-term New York Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned in the aftermath of a sexting scandal made worse by (what else?) … his lying and attempted cover-up. The film begins with a clip of one of Weiner's explosive speeches, meant to portray his expertise as a legislator and politician. This is quickly followed by the pun-filled headlines that exposed his sexting habit, seemingly leaving his political career in the dust.

Picking up two years later, the film finds the disgraced former Congressman running a campaign for NYC mayor. We can't be too surprised as we have learned numerous times that many politicians are addicted to power and life in the public eye. What makes this an interesting subject is two-fold: how publicly humiliated Weiner had been, and the fact that his wife is Huma Abedin, long-time Hillary Clinton adviser and aide.

We don't learn how it happened, but we do find Anthony and Huma are still married, are parents to a young child (she was pregnant when the first scandal hit), and that Huma fully supports his mayoral candidacy. As the campaign kicks off, Weiner is a frontrunner, proving that we are a forgiving lot. The cameras capture him in full candidate mode – making calls to potential donors, giving speeches, dealing with staffers, and working the crowds at his energy-filled parades. Of course, it's all a façade … or at least half of one.

When the second sexting scandal hits and "Carlos Danger" makes headlines as Weiner's online pseudonym, the real trainwreck begins, and we find it impossible to turn away. It's at this point where our feelings are confirmed … Huma is by far the more interesting of these two personality polar opposites. Where Weiner is two-faced – bouncing between humbled and overly ambitious; Huma is cool, collected and (seemingly) smart.

Weiner remains clueless about his chances, and the level of tension skyrockets in meetings and during spousal moments. It's impossible not to believe that the energies used towards the campaign would have been better spent in therapy – both individual and as a couple. His stream of lies proved he had not changed his ways, and his periodic reflective and apologetic moments are diminished by his true color nastiness, which is more pervasive.

The film gets unnecessarily sidetracked during a segment that features one of Weiner's phone sex relationships – codenamed "Pineapple". Entirely too much time is spent on her pathetic publicity grab, and fortunately it all falls flat. It is a reminder that the media never misses a chance to film a frenzy … even if they have to manipulate it. There is no room in a documentary for TWO trainwrecks! After the film and the irresistible draw of watching this ego-driven dude never once come to grips with why he is socially unacceptable as a leader, we realize there are unanswered questions. Why did Huma stick with her husband? Why was she onboard with him getting back in the game … did she really miss the public eye? The filmmaker flat out asks Weiner "Why have you let me film this?" Perhaps the answer to that last question is somewhat explained when you know that Anthony Weiner made an appearance in "Sharknado 3". Some people just need the spotlight.

The hecklers, the eye rolls, the angry outbursts all lead up to Lawrence O'Donnell asking Weiner "What's wrong with you?" I asked myself that same question after the movie when I realized that I was mesmerized the entire time. As for Huma ever allowing herself to be the subject of a documentary, we can only assume that she is too sagacious to allow such unfettered camera access to her work. I suppose her appearance in the next "Sharknado" is equally unlikely.