Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Inmechon The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

zkonedog When evaluating anything of a political nature, the first thing I usually do is throw away any scale ratings of it. Just the sheer fact of Obama's face being on the thumbnail of this doc will affect opinions, much as, say, current President Trump would for other population segments. As such, I really tried to ignore what I found to be a pretty low rating and just go into "The Final Year" with no expectations at all. What I found was a doc that (smartly) expresses almost no political opinions of its own, and instead basically sets up a camera and lets it roll inside the last year/months of the Obama Administration (focusing on foreign policy).Besides former President Obama himself, this doc most closely focuses on four members of his admin: John Kerry, Samantha Power, & Ben Rhodes. An insider's point of view is given on what their day-to-day life entailed in 2016 and how the entire administration really viewed that year as a race to cement the progress they felt they had made over the past seven.What I found most fascinating about this documentary is how, sheerly because of what immediately follow its events (Donald Trump being elected President), it sets up an interesting contrast between styles. Though Trump's foreign policy administration is never covered here, it is fairly common knowledge that he proceeds with a much heavier hand than his Democratic successor, favoring threats of military force and personal bluster over in-the-trenches diplomacy. The Obama foreign policy team could not have been more different, as this doc shows how hard they worked (right, wrong, or neither) to patch up old historical wounds and deal with problems via words and accords instead of wars and threats.Another thing I found to be interesting about "The Final Year" is that it is presented almost completely "without comment", so to speak, by the filmmakers. Never once do we get a moment where they sit down and pontificate on what is transpiring. Even those types of reflections are done on camera by the main subjects being interviewed. In this case, I really like that approach because it doesn't set out to "prove" or "disprove" anything. This is strictly what it sets out to be: A look inside Obama's last year as President through the primary lens of his foreign policy decisions & actions...take it or leave it.I very much enjoyed "The Final Year", but also confess that my political beliefs lean more "blue" than "red" in the first place. However, trying to be objective for a moment, I honestly don't think there is anything in this doc that is outrageous or untruthful. Whether or not you agree with the ideas being espoused is up to you. The filmmakers are just giving you the option here.

benm-41751 Camera crews followed Obama and some of his closest staff as they spent his final year of presidency trying to leave behind a positive legacy through many diplomatic undertakings. The documentary is definitely sympathetic to that he, John Kerry, and the others interviewed were in during this last year. One could possibly call it a biased portrayal, but then again it's hard not to like a president who is working tirelessly to make better connections with the nations of the world (whether or not you think he was successful). The documentary provides a rare intimate perspective into the presidency.

bsx-05384 When a train wreck presidency runs into sycophant camera team, failure is not surprising. This is no where close to anything anyone would label "in depth", rather this is a shallow accounting. The only thing one can conclude from watching this is that the documentary team was more interested in cheerleading.

jodyfranz I liked this documentary but felt like it was a little slow paced at times. It was very interesting to watch them get closer and closer to Donald Trump becoming president and kind of heartbreaking at times.All in all an ok political documentary, interesting to watch, would recommend it if you want to see the details of the Obama admin and what they were working on.