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Last Party 2000

An uncensored journey into democracy in America

2001 · 1h 30m · Not Rated Documentary
Directed by Rebecca Chaiklin , Donovan Leitch

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Overview

Filmed over the last six months of the 2000 Presidential election, Phillip Seymour Hoffman starts documenting the campaign at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, but spends more time outside, in the street protests and police actions than in the orchestrated conventions. Hoffman shows an obvious distaste for money politics and the conservative right. He looks seedier and more disillusioned the campaign progresses. Eventually Hoffman seems most energized by the Ralph Nader campaign as an alternative to the nearly indistinguishable major parties. The high point of the film are the comments by Barney Frank who says that marches and demonstrations are largely a waste of time, and that the really effective political players such as the NRA and the AARP never bother with walk ins, sit-ins, shoot-ins or shuffles. In the interview with Jesse Jackson, Hoffman is too flustered to ask all of his questions.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
56%
Tomatometer
Rotten

The breadth of subjects covered precludes any response other than nebulous discontent.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Rotten

Ending well before 9/11, the film may offer a quaint enough portrait of politics as usual at the turn of the new century, though one that hardly seems helpful in the face of the world's new realities.

Dave Kehr, New York Times
Rotten

Apart from the obvious problem that findings from this period are already dated, the scatter-shot approach of filmmakers Donovan Leitch and Rebecca Chaiklin gives too many issues too little time.

Megan Lehmann, New York Post
Rotten

If it accomplishes anything at all -- and it's dubious -- The Party's Over proves what a fragmentalized, incompetent and inarticulate thing the Left in this country has become.

John Anderson, Newsday
Fresh

Highly entertaining and thought-provoking, but also frustrating -- which, ultimately, might be the point.

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times

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