Late in the second section of “Bucks County, USA,” Two teachers on opposite sides of their city’s ongoing ideological rift decide to sit down and have been out their questions. Katherine, a new pensioner with a progressive way of thinking, invites to the current third -class teacher and moderate conservative Vonna to break bread over wine, cheese and not so lively debate. Both women are tired of the intense rhetoric that shares Doylestown, PA, and while they each realize that they cannot solve every polarizing issue on one night, they are intended to build a bridge to better, clearer communication in the future.
The speed with which their two -party intentions fall apart is equally remarkable, although the result is surprising. Katarina’s relatively secure statement – that both sides make hated comments about each other – falling on deaf ears, as Vonna immediately pivots in how she feels personally and unfairly attacked in manner that is more personal and more Injustice than anything progressive may have met. After an early emergency time for a little cheese, Katherine tries again and admit how difficult it is to have these conversations and how happy she is that they try to dig into the questions instead of avoiding them with spirits and snacks. But despite a shared civil tone, Vonna goes back to her weapons and complains that the Democrats are trying to “indoctrinate” and “groom” children “across the country” so that they can control future generations.
“What you see as a nationwide effort to lead children in one direction,” says Katherine, “I see change in culture and the children who reject a stiff way of thinking that does not match their experience of the world.” Vonna does not get involved. She does not pick up Katherine’s Point and moves the conversation forward. She does not ask any questions or recognizes Katarina’s point of view in any way. When she reflects the conservative mentality to a scary degree, she instead returns to her original talk point: “It happens to take care of,” she says. “Something is happening and it’s worrying.”
In the last part, I think we can all agree. Something happens, and it is very, very worrying. Even when red and blue voters release their pitch, they still cannot hear, debate or develop each other’s ideas. And for all their concerns about the children, all attempts are often missing to actually recognize the children’s perspectives from the debates that Rivar Doylestown apart. Some students talk at the hostile school board meetings, but their voices are not heard. (A Chides seating board so as not to listen to her When she still speaks.) Some children participate in peaceful protests, but the parents who disagree to hear them. The children are not doing well, and every adult thinks they are the one who knows why.
“Bucks County, PA” tries to correct the imbalance-and search for a broader solution to our disastrous political times-through to center their five-part series (two episodes that were screened on Sundance) On two teenage best friends: a liberal, the other a conservative. Evi is all smiles, all the time. She loves the “Hamilton” sound track, and she is known as the puffy skirt girl around the school for her big, colorful, everyday ensembles. Together with her mother, Lela, Evi does everything she can to support her LGBT friends, create a safe environment in school and embrace fact-based lessons in history, her favorite subject.
Vanessa also loves the story, and we meet her first and Evi at a local resumption of George Washington that crosses the River Delaware. But Vanessa is more introverted than her giggled best friend. She is really in a short throw, which she picked up from an online video, and she is “soft”, soft talk and shy, compared to Evi. “We are polar opposites, but we find the best things to join,” says Vanessa about her friendship. “We put in our differences, our different political beliefs and we only bind over shared interests.”
In the first two sections, the time with Evi and Vanessa is getting and far between, which can make it difficult to estimate how they exactly navigate in their inevitable opinions. What their friendship actually looks like has not yet come into focus, even when Co -directors Barry Levinson and Robert May Place them as recurring narrators who speak directly to the audience. (“I’m Vanessa,” says Vanessa, “and I’m Evi,” adds Evi, before they jointly say: “And this is the story of our city.”) It is clear that BFF will ever agree but they ever combat? Are they simply not talking about tough topics? And if they do, can they change each other’s minds?
Their parents really worry about the latter, since Evi is not exactly encouraged to go to Vanessa’s house. After all, that’s where right -wing capitalist Paul Martino lives, the self -proclaimed leader of the local conservative movement that Lela says “manipulated our school boards in a huge way.” Martino, a Balding, Paunchy venture capitalist makes for a simple villain, which when he boasts to install “160 school board members” by spending $ 500,000 on campaign donations. He speaks a lot-about his friend Mark Meccler, who “started Tea Party”, if “woke up” this and “left” as-but his argument tends to boil down to the same power-law perspective: he won, won, they Lost, so everyone should just get over it already and stop picking on the old rich guy.
Martino is not a complicated figure, and it is easy to discover other ordinary American political personalities in “Bucks County, USA”: There are the people who can only see themselves as victims and people who lurk snowflakes to be too soft. (Often it is the same people.) There are nutjob conspiracy theorists who march down Main Street and silent people who are desperate to avoid getting involved. There are personal Vendetta’s framed as political positions and political positions that are rooted on a basis for human decency. It is not difficult to see our national reflection in citizens of Bucks County.
But “Bucks County, USA” is struggling to cut through the noise and illustrate the shortcomings in these worldviews. It is much more about hearing everyone, creating balance rather than creating a point of view (beyond how American politics has weapons). It can change in the last three episodes, when the stage set is out of the way and the document series can refine on its invisible main subjects, Evi and Vanessa. But the first episodes are swept up to regain in recent years of political events while hanging out with adult perspectives that feel obsolete, if not directly regressive. Again and again, different residents express a common feeling: “It would be better if people just listen to each other.” But just as often it becomes clear what they really Mean is: “Things would be better if people would just listen to me. “
Wine and Cheese Night with the two teachers is a brief illustration of why to hear from everyone equally is not the answer, and earlier in the documentary there is a meaningful, if largely dispatched, parallel meeting. Evi and Vanessa, in an attempt to help their fellow children, host a student round table to talk about why the school board recently voted to remove Pride flags from the school places. A young man asks about pride flags exists to make the children feel safe, why not only tell All of them are safe in school, rather than suggesting just as much by setting up flags for “every group” that feels “a little” uncertain, especially when these flags and signs can “skew” other students’ opinions. “Of course, it should say that teachers support their students,” says another boy.
“Yes, in a perfect world,” Evi replies, “you would know, guaranteed, go into a classroom your teacher supports you. But in our world you don’t know.” Another girl jumps in and says, “It Was this teacher when I was in high school who accidentally said really horrible things that I was LGBTQ on a team. It really showed me that not all teachers (supports me) I go into a classroom and see a proud flag or an ally sticker, it shows me that the teacher has my back and will create a safe space at that school, no matter what. “
Unfortunately, the debate does not end there. The children who are resistant to the flags continue to argue their points, and the scene ends with a rather vague statement about getting together around what unites us, instead of being further separated by our differences. At that moment, it is easy (and annoying) to see how these students will grow up to become their parents and teachers, with the same arguments about questions that only some of them seem to understand. But taken as a whole, the round table discussion shows much more serious commitment and a slightly stronger desire to learn than when adults throw buzzwords at each other. There is a curiosity, especially in the silence, that gives hope to an otherwise exhausting debate. It is almost as if these students have their own way of thinking, their own attitude towards the world’s problems and their own desire to change the culture for the better.
“Bucks County, USA” could use more of its perspective, but then again, then Bucks County, PA.
Rating: B-
“Bucks County, USA” premiered at 2025 Sundance Film festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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