The tragedy of standing up and speaking out
This week, Peacock dropped the newest politically charged documentary, Stormy. The film follows the journey former adult film star Stormy Daniels has gone on since having to expose President Donald Trump for his hush money payment to her.
The documentary shows us the news headlines and what we saw during the first few years of Trump’s presidency in terms of the scandal that linked Daniels to the man in the Oval Office. The real intriguing part is seeing her life behind the scenes during the media fiasco that was her life during most of 2018 and 2019.
Anyone following political scandals over the last ten years knows the name Stormy Daniels. An adult film actress who had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump back in 2006. She was offered hush money during his presidential campaign run in 2015, and once the infamous “grab her by the p*ssy” recordings leaked, Daniels decided to speak up about the then-soon-to-be commander and chief.
Cameras have followed Daniels since 2018 for this documentary, showing her reactionary moments to what President Trump did in regards to her in the press as well as Michael Cohen, the man who made the one hundred and thirty thousand dollar hush money offer on behalf of Trump. We go through a journey that rehashes what life was like in the world of political news in 2018. What’s new to us is what Daniel’s did during it all.
The documentary follows Stormy going on tour, and what some would think is her grabbing her 15 minutes of fame. She uses her past career as an exotic dancer to her benefit. Making appearances at strip clubs around the country, dressed in red, white, and blue, and bringing in tons of money for her family that she has tried to keep far away from the spotlight that she has been stuck in.
Stormy Daniels, a registered Republican, has become a symbol of female empowerment for liberals all over the country. She rode the wave of being a rockstar, which stuck it to one of the most powerful men in the country.
The American Dream can turn into a nightmare, right? Because that is what happens. The documentary then shifts gears to the death threats she starts to get on Twitter. Her marriage, which seemed to feel strong, begins to crumble as her husband is left at home with their daughter.
Her trustworthy lawyer extorts her, and Daniels gets detained at the Canadian border due to assault charges issued by the FBI. She never got into any physical altercations that we know of. All of this is happening as things come crashing down for Trump in the White House in his final year and a half in office.
A lot of this is the same old news being revisited only five years after the fact, and due to recent legal trouble with the former President, it is still frankly headline-worthy. Yet, there’s nothing really new here or groundbreaking. It’s intriguing to see what life was like for Daniels while all the news broke that surrounded her, and there is a lot of empathy to feel for her. You do fear for her safety. Men have been killed for doing what she did, even in America.
If anything, Stormy does one thing very interesting. You ride the high of sticking it to “the man” with her in the first half. Daniels looks full of life and enjoys her celebrity status, as it comes with what some would feel is a good message behind it. However, in the film’s last twenty minutes, as she gets death threats to her and her family on Twitter and constant battles with Trump’s legal team, Daniels starts to look tired and not mentally well.
Who would be in her situation? Her cause had gone from pushing back against authority to just having to “talk about an ex-president’s penis now,” she states. The documentary shows us that even a worthy cause can still come crashing down on you, and that is what we call a tragedy.
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Verdict - 6/10
6/10