The IRS Scandal, Day 528

The Hollywood Reporter:  'Unfair: Exposing the IRS': Film Review:

Delivering an attack against the Internal Revenue Service is like shooting fish in a barrel. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone, whatever their political affiliation, who has anything good to say about this much-reviled government agency. So it seems a bit of a waste that Judd Saul's documentary Unfair: Exposing the IRS, shown as a one-night event in some 680 screens around the country, should have resorted to such relentless overkill.

Before your angry online comments come pouring in accusing this reviewer of being a godless, unpatriotic communist, please be advised that this is a film review, not a political tract. Any criticisms to follow are meant to address the film on cinematic terms, and in that regard it falls woefully short of being convincing to anyone who isn't already fully aligned with its impassioned message. Devoid of thoughtful analysis or divergent opinions, it's little more than agitprop … which is not to say that many of the films emanating from the other side of the political spectrum are any better. ...

Beginning with the usual barrage of inflammatory news clips, it naturally spotlights the recent uproar over the IRS' alleged targeted persecution of Tea Party organizations — President Obama is repeatedly seen denouncing it as a "phony scandal" — and the subsequent embarrassing spectacle of its leaders haplessly testifying before Congress that they had somehow managed to lose over two years' worth of relevant emails. Couple that with evidence of the agency's wild overspending, such as video clips of their bizarre comic sketches performed at lavish getaways, and it's certainly hard not to get one's dander up. ...

Featuring commentary by such usual suspects as Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann and, of course, Grover Norquist, Unfair: Exposing the IRS is not so much an expose as predictable preaching to the choir.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 527 (Oct. 18, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 526 (Oct. 17, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 525 (Oct. 16, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 524 (Oct. 15, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 523 (Oct. 14, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 522 (Oct. 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 521 (Oct. 12, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 520 (Oct. 11, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 519 (Oct. 10, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 518 (Oct. 9, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 517 (Oct. 8, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 516 (Oct. 7, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 515 (Oct. 6, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 514 (Oct. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 513 (Oct. 4, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 512 (Oct. 3, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 511 (Oct. 2, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 510 (Oct. 1, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 509 (Sept. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 508 (Sept. 29, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 507 (Sept. 28, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 506 (Sept. 27, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 505 (Sept. 26, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 504 (Sept. 25, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 503 (Sept. 24, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 502 (Sept. 23, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 501 (Sept. 22, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)