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How innocent wide-eyed idealists like Philip Seymour Hoffman seemed before the presidential election of 2000. Back in those days, it was possible to speculate on the viability of democracy and dabble in causes ranging from gun control to Farm Aid, as Hoffman does as "host" of Donovan Leitch & Rebecca Chaiklin’s timid 90-minute documentary The Party’s Over. A toothless Michael Moore (who makes a bloviating appearance at a Green Party rally), Hoffman tries to gain access to the Republican and Democratic Conventions (shots of balloons intercut with tear gas and handcuffed rioters) and other bastions of power. He never gets a foot in the door, so instead the film contents itself with discussions with people it agrees with — Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Bill Maher. Their answers to its central questions — is there a difference between the two parties, and if not, why bother to vote? — become moot when it all ends with the Florida recount. That’s where Richard Ray Perez and Joan Sekler’s 50-minute Unprecedented begins, and as bad as you thought the circumstances and implications of that disaster were, this even-handed and uncompromising documentary suggests that the reality was much worse. This urgent and essential film discloses a pattern of racist disenfranchisement and partisan strong-arm fraud in Jeb Bush’s state that makes the election in Gangs of New York look quaint. The party’s over, and the war has begun.
BY PETER KEOUGH
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