In a world where it feels like teenage boys are running things, with silly taglines and boisterous behaviour, Boys State gives us a chance to see whether that metaphor is true as we watch what happens when 16 and 17 year olds attempt to run districts and win elections in this relevant documentary.

Run by a legion of veterans, Boys State is a week long residential camp where two make belief parties, the nationalists and federalists elect chairs and decide policies. Set in Austin, Texas, a famously conservative state, the ultimate goal of the parties is to encourage other party members to swap sides and vote for their governor.

We follow a small subset of the boys in their campaigns. Ultra Conservative Ben will stop at nothing to win the election. Richard is a fairly liberal individual who pretends to be conservative and win on boisterousness alone. Rene is a young black man who is from a more urban area and tries to be a smart strategist. The main character is Stephen, son of a single mother Mexican immigrant. He comes across as a weak wetwipe with no policies at first, but soon begins to shine as the underdog story.

The whole simulation feels uncomfortably close to the truth. In a Trumpian world where shouting loudly and three word slogans are enough to get elected we see this micro-chasm of dirty tactics come into play. Candidates lying to each other before speeches, putting words in one another’s mouths. There are horrible social media campaigns and the whole thing ends up quite ugly. There is hope in there, however I came out just as worried for democracy’s future/ Everything was high testosterone and very little brain power. Raw emotion was the driver instead of calm thought.

The whole documentary was really well put together. The characters were each unique and their motives clear. I would have liked to have seen more of the emotional effect this process had on the candidates throughout. One main player also had very little screen time which may have been manipulative. However it all came together well to lead to an exciting climax as any little thing could swing this election.

Summary

Boys State is an exciting high octane deeply concerning look at democracy through a summer camp. Well put together you were intrigued to see what would happen to these characters each step of the way. The first reason to get Apple TV [Grade: B]