Spiral (2017)

"Spiral" is best in smaller-bore moments, showing how everyday lives are affected by prejudice.

I doubt I'll have stronger mixed feelings about a movie this year than Laura Fairrie's documentary "Spiral"

"Spiral" proves a largely underwhelming look at an overwhelming problem.

... lacks broader depth and context to raise the emotional stakes.

"Spiral" is an informative documentary, but I wish it were a more meticulously crafted one.

Fairrie's unfocused examination of anti-Semitism illuminates little.

An off-putting and dishonest documentary about the rise of anti-Semitism in France that offers no new insights and in the end largely confirms stereotypes about Jews.

The anecdotal, multi-narrative approach is useful in personalizing the phenomenon, but the movie still brought me up short.