Orwell: 2+2=5

Had high hopes for this movie to examine Orwell's thoughts on political systems and regimes with in-depth focus on parallels to modern day "newspeak" and breaking of collective willpower, but it does none of that. It's a series of sometimes no context images of death and dictators and Adobe Affect Effects text animations that are played along with snippets from his diary about his life. It does give more context about his writing, but no context for the historical events it shows or why it chooses to focus so heavily on Burma. It doesn't bring in any other historians or political analysts until the end and it's very brief and superficial. It primarily felt like I was watching a collection of movie clips of 1984 versions. Overall, I appreciate the subject matter and the recency of the content (e.g., the inclusion of the Gaza genocide and the MAGA ambivalence towards death for "the other team") but the movie wasn't as thought provoking as I was hoping and felt more like SparkNotes to 1984 for a Gen X audience, nothing groundbreaking if you've already read 1984 and have a basic understanding of politics and injustice.

What a load of garbage. Was so looking forward to this, I actually bought it. Damn wish I could get my money back. 100% not a true representation of Orwell at all. I would rather watch CNN at the airport. Orwell turned over in his grave. This documentary was produced by big brother. Do not waste your time.

If the intention was to present a "shrill trumpet-call" in imitation of an Inner Party-directed Hate Week project, then mission accomplished.

The narrated George Orwell excerpts outshine anything assembled by the writer / director whose own political bias and blind spots mirror an Orwell quotation that's cited early in the film: "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude". IMO, Orwell: 2+2=5 is a political attitude that lacks artistry. Images and video are presented in a "We didn't start the fire" stream; there is no depth, no context and not even a discussion of the title formula, just clips from past portrayals of 1984. Overall, it's clumsily designed to manipulate the hate-filled and uninformed. It will do well in some circles.

Skip this film; better to read Mr. Orwell and a good Orwell biography.

The best I can say about Orwell: 2+2=5 is that the anticipation of seeing it encouraged me to re-read Nineteen Eighty-Four. I did also appreciate the clip from Terry Gilliam's Brazil; isolating the copy room scene made me wonder about the great preparation that was necessary to make the movements so fluid.

Saw this at the Toronto international film festival. This is an excellent documentary that explains Orwell's life and thoughts using his own words. Contemporary news footage bring his work to life as the #1 predictor of the messes we are in now.

As Orwell thought: it's not left or right, it's defend the truth!

I would have given it a 6.5 if that had been possible. I really appreciated Orwell's works and had high expectations for this film. I consider myself center-left, but I found it too one-sided, underdeveloped, and overly fatalistic. It can feel quite anxiety-inducing... I understand that we shouldn't bury our heads in the sand, but at this point it starts to verge on pure sensationalism. The selected clips are very suggestive for example, they only show the best quotes and moments from people on the left, and then one of the worst moments from someone on the right. I generally disagree with Zuckerberg's main ideas, but he's not some demonic idiot either.. in the film, he's constantly shown at his worst moments.