Politics suck. The COVID-19 pandemic would not have been as destructive if leaders and their followers hadn’t politicized science. I’m tired of drowning in infinitely aggressive discourse propagated by obviously broken individuals who believe saving the world is more practical than saving themselves. Political extremism content on both sides has always been brainrot slop for adults. Documentary filmmaker and YouTube sensation Andrew Callaghan’s new feature film Dear Kelly delves into one based and redpilled conspiracy theorist’s shattered life to promote radical empathy for people most would disregard as mouth-breathing ignorant White trash.
California resident and former lawyer Kelly Johnson once had the American Dream—married with three kids in a suburban home. That was until a maniacal real estate agent named Bill Joiner allegedly stole everything from him. Andrew Callaghan discovered Kelly while he owned the libs at a 2021 White Lives Matter rally, educating them on how the Clintons assassinated Kobe Bryant because he would’ve exposed their baby-killing operation…or something like that. Politics suck. Filmed over four years, Dear Kelly documents Callaghan’s attempts at helping Kelly move on from Bill Joiner and reconnect with his estranged, mostly normal family.
I first discovered Andrew Callaghan’s channel, All Gas No Brakes, in 2020, and his edgy gonzo journalism quickly became a favourite in Discord calls with my high school friends. His trip to the Adult Video News Expo—the world’s largest porn tradeshow—remains peak YouTube content. Now posting on Channel 5, Callaghan and his work have matured from “Look how insane these people are” to “Look how our capitalist society disregards marginalized people and profits from their misery.” Videos still have aspiring rappers embarrassing themselves for levity. I stopped watching during university because most of my degree is “captialism bad,” anyway; however, I still admired Callaghan helping people in his videos.
Unfortunately, Dear Kelly does not do nearly enough to justify itself as a feature film. The questions it poses about why people like Kelly fall into political extremism are answered in the first few minutes. Callaghan’s 2022 directorial debut about the January 6 Capitol Riot, This Place Rules, answered the question succinctly. Political extremists project personal tragedies onto the government instead of working on themselves. Many Capitol rioters had lost their homes during the 2008 financial crisis. With a bloated 90-minute runtime, including a boring non-sequitur halfway through where Callaghan goes to a college party for classic drunk people being stupid footage, Dear Kelly ultimately feels pointless. Despite Callaghan’s best efforts to reconnect Kelly with his family, he does not change; instead falling deeper into the right-wing rabbit hole. Callaghan solves the central Bill Joiner mystery after learning about Kelly’s pride and poor financial sense from his ex-wife, whom Callaghan should have contacted immediately. The ending felt like the film’s release was primarily to cut losses; however, the editing and use of his home videos were smart choices because they helped me empathize with Kelly. In that sense, the documentary succeeds.
But should we empathize with Kelly—a highly educated, narcissistic 60-year-old White guy who harassed abortion clinic employees about buying baby parts because he couldn’t recognize his flaws? A guy with three children who still want a relationship with him. Considering the innumerable people suffering across the globe because of choices others made for them, I came away feeling like Kelly is the last person worth thinking about right now. If Kelly wants to doom scroll extremist platforms while unemployed, good for him—sucks he can still vote, as far as I know.
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