End Stage

REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM (B+) - Follow the money.

Legendary MIT professor Noam Chomsky has been the conscience of our system of government for decades, and as he starts to pull away from public life at age 87, he uses his last long-form documentary  chronicling the progression of our political system to the point I like to call Fourth-Stage Capitalism.

A trio of progressive filmmakers -- Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks and Jared Scott -- sits Chomsky down for a few extreme close-ups and his customary rants about the injustices and evils perpetuated in the name of the American people. They break it down into 10 neat chapters, the equivalent of two album sides of material for what is, in effect, Chomsky's greatest hits.

The main theme: How the wealthy have, in the parlance of the 2016 election, rigged the system to forever favor them. As the film progresses, the later chapters gradually raise the stakes, as Chomsky breaks down such fundamental topics as education (starving public schools to encourage the rise of charter schools) and the media (all together now, "Manufacturing consent!"). Our guide is sharp and even occasionally snarky. He tosses off phrases that concisely articulate his philosophy -- he makes a passing reference to our "residue of democracy," for example.

The filmmakers feel overly compelled to goose the production with animation and lazy visual effects. Old footage is invariably preceded by the white light of a film projector clacking away in the foreground. The graphics give off a slight whiff of "Schoolhouse Rock."

And the topic is pretty dense, even at a compact 75 minutes. But the star still manages to slice directly at the heart of our culture with his blunt rhetoric that begs to be heeded.

BONUS TRACK
Streaming on PBS under the "Independent Lens" banner:

DEMOCRATS (B) - This charming yet disturbing documentary spends a couple of years with the leaders of Zimbabwe's political factions as they try to hammer out a constitution under the dictatorship of strongman Robert Mugabe. Camilla Nielsson ("Children of Darfur") tromps around the African nation with Mugabe's snake-tongued proxy, Paul Mangwana (below, center), pushing the ruling ZANU-PF party's propaganda. On the other side, opposition party representative Douglas Mwonzora (left) keeps his cool in dealing with the various indignities of the process.

The pair lead a nationwide tour of town-hall meetings, with Mugabe's man always a step ahead of the game. The ruling party buses residents to each area's gatherings, where they robotically express their support for a form of government with extensive presidential powers.

Machiavellian drama abounds. The one-liners couldn't be better if they had been scripted by Aaron Sorkin.  “Democracies in Africa are a difficult proposition, because always the opposition will want more than it deserves,” says a surprisingly congenial Mugabe. Mangwana dresses down a reporter for asking "negative" questions and leaves the scribe with this simple warning: "The free press will feel my fist."

Nielsson finesses intimate access. Her observant camera captures the labor pains involved in trying to birth a democracy in a nation conditioned by a history of colonialism and then three decades of dictatorship. And some people thought the Wyoming caucuses were complicated.