Los Angeles Times - 13.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020E5

AT THE MOVIES

‘Viral:

Antisemitism

in Four

Mutations’

Not rated

Running time:1 hour,

24 minutes

Playing:Laemmle Royal,

West Los Angeles, Town

Center, Encino

STARTS TODAY

“EXHILARATING.”

–ManohlaDargis,NYTIMES

“THRILLINGLY

IMAGINATIVE.”

–RichardBrody,THENEWYORKER

“HALLUCINATORY.”

–JustinChang,LOSANGELESTIMES

“GLORIOUSLY

DEMENTED.”

–DavidEhrlich,INDIEWIRE

“RAUCOUSLYFUNNY

TOTALLYSATISFYING.”

–NataliaKeogan,PASTE

“WILDLY

ENTERTAINING.”

–TaylorAntrim,VOGUE

“ASCREAMOF

SATIRICALDEFIANCE.”

–PeterBradshaw,THEGUARDIAN

AFILMBYKLEBERMENDONÇAFILHO

&JULIANODORNELLES

SONIABRAGA UDOKIER

NUART

11272 Santa Monica Blvd.

landmarktheatres.com

UDO KIER

IN PERSON

FRIDAY

8PM!

SCREEN DAILY

“

JAVIER BARDEM AND

ELLE FANNING SHINE.

”

THE ROADS

NOT TAKEN

A FILM BY SALLY POTTER

“THRIVES ON

BARDEM’S STUNNING

PERFORMANCE.”

CINEUROPA

JAVIER

BARDEM

ELLE

FANNING

SALMA

HAYEK

LAURA AND

LINNEY

WITH

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

STARTS TODAY

WEST LOS ANGELES

The Landmark at W. Pico & Westwood

(310) 470-0492 landmarktheatres.com

Fri-Sun: 11:00, 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 8:45, 9:45

Mon-Thur: 11:00, 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:45

1045 Broxton Avenue between Weyburn and Kinross

Dolby ATMOS Sound System • State of the Art Projection

Platformed Auditorium Seating • Luxury Leather Seats

Reserved Seating • Concierge Station

Cinema Snacks, Pub Fare, Popcorn with Real Butter

CraftBeer&Winecoming soon

Tickets & Showtimes: LandmarkTheatres.com

NOW OPEN!

after undergoing extensive renovation and upgrades

NOW PLAYING

Midnight Shows

First Saturday of every month!

Upcoming shows: April & May

If anti-Semitism is not, as
is often claimed, the world’s
oldest hatred, it is certainly
in the running, and the docu-
mentary “Viral: Anti-
semitism in Four Muta-
tions” briskly examines the
how and the why.
As directed by veteran
television filmmaker An-
drew Goldberg, “Viral”
makes the point that one
reason for anti-Semitism’s
survival is its ability to adapt
and spread like a virus. Of
the “thousands of muta-
tions” available to examine,
narrator Julianna Margulies
explains, the film has fo-
cused on a very visible quar-
tet.
Though “Virus” could
have lived without the pres-
ence of director Goldberg as
an on-camera through-line,
it is at its best in presenting
strong and vivid examples of
anti-Semitic rhetoric and
actions.
As much as we see and
know that the virus is out
there, actually hearing
things like a Washington,
D.C., councilman proclaim-
ing that global warming ex-
ists because “the Roth-
schilds control the climate
to create natural disasters”
is little short of boggling.
The first of the four epi-
sodes, the longest and most
involving of the group, is not
surprisingly the one from
the United States where
anti-Semitism is a creature
of the far right.
After setting things up
with a recap of the 2018 mass
shooting at Pittsburgh’s
Tree of Life synagogue
where 11 died (“the suspect
keeps talking about killing

Jews,” the police radio says,

“he doesn’t want any of them

to live”), “Viral” takes off in a

few different directions.

First is a meeting with a

man named Russell Walker,

an affable gentleman en-

countered campaigning for

the North Carolina House of

Representatives from Hoke

County.

But just as we’re begin-

ning to wonder what such a

genial individual is doing in

this film Walker begins to es-

pouse savagely bigoted

views, insisting that “god is a

racist” who favors white peo-

ple and that Jews were an es-

pecially evil force.

This leads to an examina-

tion by prominent figures of

the conspiracy theory root

causes of antisemitism,

summed up by George Will,

who notes that when the

question “who did this to us”

comes up, “Jews are always a

candidate.”

This reason connects to

the film’s second segment,

set in Hungary and focusing

on the way Prime Minister

Viktor Orban and his Fidesz

party have similarly scape-

goated Jewish financier

George Soros, accusing him

of being a puppet master at-

tempting to force Hungary

to accept Muslim immi-

grants.

Shots of the vast scope of

anti-Soros material (often

with anti-Semitic graffiti

scrawled on it) are daunting,

as is the sight of Orban him-

self orchestrating photos

with compliant rabbis (“It

looks like ‘Fiddler on the

Roof,’ ” someone says)

whenever charges of anti-

Semitism surface.

“If he stopped people

from thinking and got them

into blaming,” explains Bill

Clinton, “he would have a

base that didn’t care what

else he did.”

“Viral’s” next segment,

dealing with the accusations

that Britain’s Labor Party

under Jeremy Corbyn has

embraced a hostility to Isra-

el that has morphed into

anti-Semitism, is the weak-

est of the group.

But the film regains its

footing with the final seg-

ment on France and Islamic

Radicalism, as it talks mov-

ingly to survivors of anti-Se-

mitic massacres and the

brother of one of the perpe-

trators.

Though it is too glib at

moments, “Viral” scores

points with examples that

underscore the seriousness

of the situations it depicts.

Old as it is, anti-Semitism

has never gone away and

shows no signs of doing so

any time soon.

REVIEW

In ‘Viral,’ hatred is seen as a disease

Andrew Goldberg’s

probing documentary

focuses on perhaps

the oldest example,

anti-Semitism.

KENNETH TURAN
FILM CRITIC

DIRECTORAndrew Goldberg, left, with North Carolina politician Russell Walker in “Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations.”

Dark Star Pictures

7+(32:(56

7+$7%(

'(/,9(5('

Sign up for the free

Los Angeles Times

Politics newsletter.

QHZVOHWWHUVODWLPHVFRP