film

"Dark Money" exposes the dangers of unbridled, anonymous political spending so expertly that it will make you fume with anger, practically quake with distress.

The film's basic problem is that it jumps around too much... Still, Reed and her team have boiled down their presentation to a manageable 99 minutes that's fascinating, absorbing, and mind-altering.

The undue influence of money on elections is not exactly news, but the ways in which that influence can now be secured, given the current state of the law, certainly is.

"Dark Money" takes a detailed look at an unexpectedly complex situation that is at the heart of political action today.

Activist in tone, and paced like a thriller, Reed's movie painstakingly details how an election can be brusquely seized and swayed by unseen forces.

Damning, clear-eyed, and as gripping as any John Grisham thriller.

[It] will either bore you to death or boil your blood. As a Washington political junkie, I fall into the latter camp. Your results may vary.

It's not an insult to call this an exemplary PBS documentary; let's just say you should make sure you are really in the MOOD for a PBS doc before you check out Dark Money.

There's not a dull or dry moment in Reed's briskly paced film about the secret assault on the American electoral and judicial process by corporations whose agenda is nothing less than the dismantling of government itself.

A densely packed documentary that earnestly and obsessively addresses campaign finance reform, its history and vital importance.