‘Knock Down the House’ Film Review: Rousing Documentary Follows AOC and Three Other Women on the Road to Congress
Abolish your suspicions if you are expecting a standard-issue political campaign movie from Rachel Lears’ inspiring “Knock Down the House,” the winner of two audience awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Along with her editor and co-writer Robin Blotnick (“The Hand That Feeds”), director Lears (“Netizens”) raises the tired fare’s bar several notches in her powerhouse documentary and puts forth intertwined character studies of four liberal Americans — women who challenged the odds stacked against them leading up to the historic 2018 midterm elections that altered the face of the House of Representatives. Not unlike the candidates it portrays, “Knock Down The House” puts in the necessary work towards a payoff that earns both cheers and tears.