The Counterculture Lives

"Am I Racist" Top Doc Opening in 20 Years

The Hollywood Reporter announces the success of Am I Racist, which became the top earning documentary in 20 years. A miracle considering it was blacklisted by nearly every major media organization in the mainstream and very nearly shut out by critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, the Daily Wire can count itself as a force to be reckoned with. They’re a real studio now. They will be harder for the bubble that is Hollywood to ignore. This is the beginning of a thriving counterculture, and not a moment too soon.

In the weeks leading up to the release of The Daily Wire’s first major theatrical feature, Am I Racist, Ben Shapiro and everyone else at the company were on the publicity trail. The trailer played before every podcast from the Daily Wire.

We saw Matt Walsh appearing on various Conservative talk shows. But, as with the film Reagan and Sound of Freedom, it had to remain on the other side of the Blue Wall. They do everything they can to not help these outsider productions because they are not politically aligned with the insulated, isolated bubble that now defines Hollywood.

The film critic aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes, did not showcase the few reviews the film did have. In the beginning, there were just four. Now, the reviews have grown a bit, giving the film both a film critic score and an audience score:

Matt Walsh took to X to call out the film critics for being too cowardly to watch the film or mention it. (Read the full thread here).

That seemed to generate some viral heat on the app, and before long, it became a trending topic. Why were no critics reviewing the film?

And then, a film critic named Jeremy Jahns, with 2 million YouTube subscribers, reviewed the film:

Matt Walsh thanked him on X, and before long, Jahns was getting trashed, too, just for reviewing it. X users were calling him a racist and a bad critic. After that, Critical Drinker, who is even more popular than Jahns, called everyone out for criticizing Jahns and reviewed the film himself:

By now, Am I Racist was generating far more publicity than it ever would have had it gone the traditional route, which it could not have because, needless to say, Walsh - like every other Conservative - is blacklisted.

Finally, Walsh appeared on the Joe Rogan show. If there is a happy ending to be had, this would be it. Now, millions of Rogan listeners will know about the movie and maybe they’ll go see it. At the moment, the box office is around $6 million but I’ll be watching it to see how high it goes.

One of the most impressive things I’ve seen Matt Walsh do, however, is explain on his show why he made the movie and why he believes Conservatives have to start making movies. And not just any movies — good movies that can compete in the mainstream. He offered the best explanation I’ve heard as to why we so desperately need a counterculture:

Because Hollywood's power has been concentrated into fewer hands, we have giant monopolies. ABC News is connected to Disney. Amazon sells groceries and makes movies. Apple sells tech products and makes movies. The large corporations decide they will only advertise with ideologically aligned sites or fund ideologically aligned films. This has created a creative bottleneck, one that is suffocating and boring.

But if you escape the bubble and dare to dissent, a universe of possibilities is available to you. No, you won’t be invited to a party at the Ross House where you can rub elbows with Steven Spielberg. But you can start to build something in what is now a mostly vacant lot full of possibilities.