‘Homegrown’: Venice Review

Dir: Michael Premo. US. 2024. 110mins

With another US presidential election looming on the horizon, the contentious 2020 campaign remains in the minds of Americans — in particular, the violent insurrection instigated on January 6, 2021 by far-right extremists who sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory over incumbent Donald Trump. The sobering documentary Homegrown takes us into the lives of three of those activists in the months leading up to the 2020 election, showing us in unvarnished detail how these men view themselves as patriots trying to save their country from tyranny.

Embeds viewers in the lives of all three subjects

Illuminating his subjects without ever rationalising their mindset or sympathising with their situation, journalist and filmmaker Michael Premo offers a blunt assessment of a rising threat fuelled by a poisonous worldview and unchecked anger. Homegrown debuts in Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival, which will also feature the thematically similar competition title The Order – a true-life drama about a dangerous US white supremacist group. Containing upsetting footage from the 2021 attacks, Premo’s documentary refuses to sensationalise its timely material, which only makes the picture that much more troubling.

Early on in Homegrown, we meet Randy (a military veteran), Chris (a New Jersey husband who is about to become a father) and Thad (a Texan who supports Black Lives Matter), all of whom identify themselves as members of the Proud Boys – a far-right movement that closely aligns itself with Donald Trump. Insisting they are not white supremacists — they prefer to call themselves “Western chauvinists” — these men separately advocate for the president’s reelection, occasionally violently confronting his critics in public. But when Biden is declared the winner in November 2020, the Proud Boys, taking cues from Trump, refuse to concede, leading to a deadly clash with law enforcement in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.

Making his solo feature directorial debut, Premo embeds viewers in the lives of all three subjects. Homegrown is not concerned with excavating precisely what made them so militant in their right-wing advocacy. Instead, the film simply presents them, with a minimum of editorialising, as they go about their activism. The deceptive casualness of Premo’s approach proves effective in elucidating their everyday bigotry and ignorance — not to mention their certainty in their mission. Convinced that “liberals” and “Antifa” are America’s greatest threat, these three men go about their objectives in different ways — some are armed to the teeth — but they share an unwavering belief that the idealised world they once knew has changed determinentally and needs to be reformed as soon as possible, and by any means necessary.

Thad is perhaps the most fascinating of the three because of his contradictions. Personable and self-effacing, he fancies himself as someone who can bridge political divides, a point he emphasises by befriending Jacarri, a Black Lives Matter leader in Utah. But Homegrown quickly exposes Thad’s closed-mindedness as he futilely debates with Jacarri about whether Trump is racist. The more he tries to assert that the Proud Boys’ agenda overlaps with that of BLM, the more foolish he appears. These sequences would be funny if they weren’t so distressing, highlighting the self-delusion of the Proud Boys movement.

As Homegrown inches closer to the 2020 election, Chris takes centre stage, his building rage becoming the film’s central tension. As he prepares for his son’s birth, he grows increasingly fixated on taking action to stop Biden from “stealing” the election — and he is prepared to storm the Capitol to make sure “justice” prevails. Premo’s unobtrusive filming style gives Chris the space to reveal his hypocrisy, blithely explaining how that he cannot be a bigot because his wife Moira is an Asian immigrant. Tellingly, Moira is never shown on screen, but her presence is felt in the multiple cell phone calls we see Chris make to her while he’s involved in far-right rallies, unconvincingly reassuring her that he’s not getting into any trouble. Her silence speaks volumes.

Not surprisingly, Chris takes part in the 2021 insurrection, and Homegrown is on the literal frontlines with him as the Capitol is overwhelmed. Many have seen footage from that day, but here it feels especially sickening because we now know Chris. Homegrown never makes excuses for its subjects — there’s no blaming their ugly views on economic disparity — but the disturbing ordinariness of these men is chilling. When Chris explodes in anger during the insurrection, he becomes yet another example of a far-right movement dedicated to bending the US to its will. While Chris receives deserving punishment, that movement continues, its motives and grievances laid out persuasively in Premo’s gripping film.