Am I Racist?: Be Better, by Tyler Smith

Justin Folk’s Am I Racist? is the latest film from conservative website The Daily Wire and it is, in many ways, exactly what you would expect. It is a reaction and rejection of the current political conversation about race. In the spirit of Folk’s previous effort What is a Woman?, the film is structured like a documentary, but is much more of a personal statement from its star, Matt Walsh. However, while that film – a controversial take on the gender debate – was much more focused on its subject, Am I Racist? is scattershot, taking wild swings in all directions, hoping that it will connect with something eventually. 

Being a conservative myself, the thought of a person being defined solely by the various groups they fall into – race, gender, religion, etc. – as opposed to their individual decisions and actions is anathema to me. However, to suggest that these are mutually exclusive is such an act of denial as to border on naivete. A person’s heritage or culture will of course make up a part of who they are, but only a part. It’s a fine line to walk; a line that this film acknowledges but refuses to toe. 

In the film, Walsh chooses to set his sights on the concept of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and the cultural toxicity it can create. What started as a sincere attempt to right the wrongs of the past and to give the marginalized a leg-up slowly turned into a perpetual focus on race, resulting in previously unheard of levels of self hatred in those with the best of intentions. When Walsh exposes the extremes to which people will go to momentarily assuage their guilt, the film is at its most effective. As in What is a Woman?, the more impactful moments come from asking simple questions and allowing the subjects to tie themselves in knots trying to provide a meaningful answer.

Unfortunately, the film regularly abandons this strategy in favor of comedy stunts and bits. Early in the film, Walsh dons his progressive “disguise” to artificially create laughs, rooted mostly in his rough approximation of what he considers a typical, race-obsessed liberal. Rather than attempt an insightful deconstruction, much of the film can be summarized as “Matt Walsh creates chaos.” There are certainly some thought-provoking moments in the film, but, too often, Walsh and Folk fall into the tantalizing trap that so many documentarians have before them: to put the focus squarely on the star instead of the subject. Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, and Bill Maher – just to name a few – have all put themselves front and center, and their films, in my opinion, suffered as a result.

More than a complete film, Am I Racist? feels more like a collection of haphazard sketches. Half-formed, at best. Despite the sloppy execution of these bits, the filmmakers clearly believe they are creating comedy gold. In fact, the whole movie smacks of self satisfaction. This is perhaps appropriate, as the film appears to achieve its goal of pandering to its intended audience and mocking everyone else. This may explain the laziness of these vignettes; making a movie for people that have already decided they are going to love it is certainly not the ideal environment for demanding excellence of oneself. 

That I found the film mostly frustrating is not to suggest that it has no merits. One thing that Am I Racist? does well – once you cut through the forced silliness, of course – is to paint a convincing picture of modern anti-racism as an industry unto itself. And a growing one, at that. Walsh expertly presents all of the books, lectures, and workshops that make up this movement as shameless cash grabs, capitalizing on people’s good intentions and guilt. It can easily be compared to some of our shadier religions; convincing people that they are inherently evil but can be saved if they just cough up enough cash. But, of course, nobody is ever truly saved in anti-racism. Our inherent prejudice is like an onion, with seemingly countless layers of hate, stripped away bit by bit, ad infinitum, one dollar at a time. 

If the rest of the film were as thorough and disciplined as these elements, Daily Wire could have had a legitimately hard-hitting documentary on its hands. It could have created genuine discussions between those that agree with it and those that don’t. But, no. Justin Folk and Matt Walsh instead choose the easier path, opting for mockery and dismissal. They are content – eager, really – to maintain cultural divisions, demonizing the calculating, manipulative “Them” while celebrating the logical, sinless “Us.” The result s a film that is rendered inessential to all but its most enthusiastic audience.

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48 Responses

  1. Michael says:

    Typical liberal garbage review.

  2. Max Patternman says:

    This might be the most biased review I ever read. Do your job and not politics.

  3. Will says:

    * Psst…. It’s a comedy. *

    The laughs are “artificial”. It’s been hitting the mark with audiences everywhere it’s shown.

    Didn’t anybody tell you that humour is subjective?

  4. Tony Unrau says:

    Have you thought of being a political pundit rather than a movie critic?

  5. Roost says:

    This review is what a low testosterone person would write. It’s so weak and feminine. Pussy

  6. Joey says:

    Wow you clearly didn’t watch the movie. Either that or someone is paying you to bash it! LoL!!!

  7. Walt P says:

    Typical liberal so out of touch with the general public.

  8. Benedict says:

    Guys. You misunderstand. In order to keep his press bona fides, he has to disguise his review in a sandwich of criticism. In the middle there, you can read what he truly thinks of the film but is to cowardly to just straight up say. Do better.

  9. Eric Lopez says:

    As a fan of Walsh and of the film, I actually think this is a fair review. I did not like it as much as What is a Woman because of the reasons you stated. It lacked focus. It had genuinely funny moments, but was just missing something for me. I think Matt was a little ridiculous at times. When I left the theater I felt a bit disappointed. After thinking it over and remembering back on it, I grew to like it more. Matt at his best when he is seriously challenging his interviewees. Not sure if he could have done that this time around so I can understand why he went about it the way he did.

  10. Albert Becerra says:

    Rejection of the current conversation of race? This film was literally the opposite. That’s why had your “scholars” and “experts” had known it was matt, they never would have done any sort of interview.

  11. Tim says:

    Terrible and biased review. Amazing movie that really shows how bad society has become.

  12. Christopher Dyer says:

    I think this is fair. It’s more comedy than documentary, and I was wishing for more probing questions. Robin and Breesia were both providing absurd content, but Walsh didn’t give them free rein long enough. More of the BS from the white-guilt dinner for women would have been fun too. The D stands for Diversity, but the dinners start with the discussion is for women only. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

  13. Nick McWilliams says:

    Classic White guilt review

  14. Mark says:

    Hmm. Reviewed a week after the movie was released… 98% Audience score. Seems like you tried unsuccessfully to review bomb one of the best documentary films of the year. Also since you are obviously part of the 2% minority, 98% of your reviews can be ignored as useless garbage.

  15. Michael Roman says:

    How can you be a legit reviewer or taken serious if you don’t review it unbiased. Its very clear your liberal bias is deep and obvious in this review. But I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s pretty typical from the left and doesn’t hold water anymore. You might want to consider another career.

  16. Matt Parks says:

    Liberals are hypocrites. Dishonest and can’t grasp reality. Say what you want but this movie (rather you want to believe it or not) does what it was intended to do. Expose the hypocrisy of the left and BS DEI programs and how they use racism from their gain.

  17. Nick says:

    This guy has officially lost all credibility.

  18. Kim Kirchoff says:

    Shouldn’t you review a movie without bias? Seriously. Additionally, if you review movies and put it out there, why would you (with the exception of hateful responses) delete responses from others that disagree with you? Honest question.

  19. JCT says:

    Heres your first problem – you went to a comedic film looking for “a legitimately hard-hitting documentary”.

    Second, you write “Justin Folk and Matt Walsh instead choose the easier path, opting for mockery and dismissal.”
    Give a single example of this. The comedy of this film was letting the subjects speak for themselves, and the audience realizing how ridiculous their beliefs are. There was absolutely no “mockery” or dismissal in the entire running time of this film.
    This review is nothing more than a poorly written contrarian review for an obviously popular film.
    Congratulations of the click-bait, but I block all ads – so you’ll get to revenue from me.

  20. Massive Chad says:

    Yikes, seethe harder loser lmao

  21. Jeff M says:

    If your review was actually honest, then I would have likely donated to your gofundme. I was curious what type of person would write a hit piece like this so I went to your instagram and found your gofund me. It’s hard to tell what is real vs fake these days when it comes to gofundme and your disigenuous review surely did not compell me to support you.

  22. steve brix says:

    comments are wild 😀

  23. Big Ole Johnson says:

    Absolute garbage review, dont go to a comedic film wanting an actual in depth documentary. Your bias is so painfully obvious

  24. Juan V. says:

    Just add this ‘critics’ name to the long list of self aggrandizing wannabe’s that you ignore. Ignore in all facets, don’t come back to their sites, if they make videos don’t view them. Simply ignore them and don’t contribute to their economics. They are fake and don’t deserve your time or attention. This was certainly the only time this person will receive my time, as the minute and thirty seconds of effort I put into this far outweighs the value of this drivel.

  25. Heather Cooper says:

    Lighten up, dude.

    If you can’t see that Matt exposed these race hustlers with humor and facts and f you aren’t mortified at the cost these women are charging for insecure white people to be lied to and told how awful they are then you’re biased.
    If the races were flipped, you’d praise this as a ground-breaking film that is exposing the truth and should be celebrated.

  26. Billy H says:

    Garbage review man. I mean I get that you have to spew the chosen words or the mob will try to silence you, but if you keep spewing the words that are accepted by the ministry of truth your content/art will never have any meaning to it. Grow some balls speak your truth and don’t nestle it right between two bullshit bookends of ministry improved misinformation that you clearly don’t believe.

  27. mzpinca says:

    You’re one sad little man, pathetic really. You don’t care about anything that doesn’t support your biased partisan worldview.

  28. Jeff says:

    I see you mentioned you are a conservative, but you didn’t explicitly say “how do you do fellow conservatives” so your review gets a 1/10.

  29. Mason A. says:

    I’ve read all the reviews written on the movie so far, and this one is by far the most thoughtful, instructive, objective, and fair—remarkably, coming from a conservative. Bravo!

  30. Doc Filmmaker says:

    The film is trash! You couldn’t pay me to go watch it.

  31. Chocks OnDic says:

    A bias review from a liberal that loves a good tube steak.

  32. Ada Dictome says:

    Typical bias review from a leftist that loves tube steak.

  33. Regular Dude says:

    lol. Everything we need to know about you is stated in the very first sentence of the review. You felt a need to identify that the makers are ‘conservative’. When did you ever identify the politics of any other filmmaker in the first line of a movie review? You and your ilk are responsible for the clown world we live in, honestly, you should be ashamed of yourself, you have no business reviewing movies.

  34. David Norris says:

    The bad reviews let you know who the racist liberal are. Good to know this POS racist is another person matt should interview

  35. Phillip West says:

    Those who can, Do. Those who Can’t, Teach. Those who can’t even teach, Critique. And is this case, poorly. Get a real job, pinko.

  36. Guy says:

    I read the Rotten Tomatoes quote “Half-informed at best” and after reading this review… I definitely noticed the reviewer’s own projection.
    Kudos where due, the 6th paragraph was likely the most honest and sincere. A shame there was no comedy in this to alleviate how boring it is to read.

  37. Rachel says:

    Well the movie has 98% audience love and has made nearly 10mil…. you wasted your time writing this subpar review sweetie.

  38. shawn clark says:

    Wow… I wish I was able to articulate my thoughts so well! Your comment described my feelings about the film almost exactly. The only thing to add, is that I have a small issue with a promotional statement from Wash; “we made sure that all the trailers would not show the best scenes.” In my opinion, I almost felt as if I’d seen most of the movie via the ads, reviews & previews.

  39. Joey says:

    No wonder no one has heard of you. You are braindead.

  40. Alan says:

    Sad that this is what constitutes a review. This person should be ignored and not taken seriously as a reviewer going forward. Worst critic I’ve seen in a while. No attempt to look at film from a concept, camera, effects perspective. Just spews left leaning biases. This guy is not someone I’d call a critic.

  41. Latinos 4trump says:

    We are all entitled to our opinions, but not required to listen to those with a different way of thinking. That said, this review truly is ridiculous. This film costed at best $3mil to make and it has more content than most $200 mil Disney woke garbage. I can’t wait for you to review Snow White. PS, if you would have taken that time to not pander to your pundit fellow communists, maybe someone would have actually taken your side on the matter in these comments. Don’t call yourself a conservative when you aren’t. We smell a rat when there’s one near us. Go find Christ and join us for real. Best of luck to you and God bless.

  42. Craig Verdi says:

    At least he reviewed it while hundreds of others hid under their bed and wet their pants. I don’t agree with it all, but pinning down some main points and some discussion of how we can stop this psychosis of DEI would be good. This movie is a good start. White guilt? What do we expect, when the sheeple are bombarded with stupidity about racism 24/7? I think Biden helped the situation somewhat, because he made black criminals always innocent. That has created a lot of resentment and disbelief. He has made black people less likeable as anyone would be who is coddled and pandered to their whole life. This pandering has led to some real stupidity like the $1,000 shoplifting limit in California. Really, if someone told you that 10 years ago what is happening now, you would tell them they are crazy.

  43. Ethan says:

    I was wondering what your take on this would be, don’t totally agree but I do think nuance is called for. I personally loved the movie but WIAW was much more on point. Maybe we’ll get a chance to discuss it

  44. Mike says:

    It appears this film may have triggered Tyler

  45. Naz says:

    Thanks for this review Tyler. I appreciate you giving an even handed take despite the nature of a film like this lending itself to firebreathers on both sides.

  46. Yonah says:

    Every one of you sociopaths in the comments section are so triggered, I’m starting to wonder why you don’t all get jobs and stop whining in your parents’ basements.

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