A documentary by Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott. Rating unavailable.

What does it say about the American Dream that the political rise of Donald Trump and evil Canadian Ted Cruz has happened in the short time between now and when this brief documentary debuted locally, at last fall’s VIFF?

Whatever it says is not good for the body politic, but then, the number one goal of Republicans during the Obama administration was always the dismantling of the already flimsy version of health care he managed to squeak through before the know-nothing bigots took complete control. No bathwater for you, baby. Life only matters to the unborn!

Of course, all these developments were fairly obvious to Noam Chomsky, even if the grisly particulars have been beyond what the country’s Leftus Emeritus even imagined when he sat down for four years of interviews with the team of filmmakers behind this Requiem. It’s too bad the pounding audio and overly familiar archival footage here don’t actually add that much to Chomsky’s clearly articulated rundown.

Still, it’s a concentrated primer on what the hell happened until now. Chomsky makes the case that a pure concentration of wealth was embedded in the sacred Constitution, and that democracy would always have to be pushed aside to “protect the minority of the opulent”. Well, it sure worked out that way. But who knew it would get so much worse than that, and so damn fast?