Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Documentary 'Knock Down The House' Uncovers Democrat Challenges In 2018 Election

Amid the "#MeToo" movement, increasingly divisive national-identity politics, and the upset Democratic primary victory by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rachel Lears' documentary "Knock Down The House" about four nothing-to-lose women Democratic candidates in 2018 provides a glimpse into contemporary campaigning and how candidates with both limited financial resources and name recognition navigate the American political system.

The 86-minute film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is in limited theater release, fetched a reported $10 million from Netflix. It has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 65 critics.

Longtime New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis noted that "Ocasio-Cortez quickly, and unsurprisingly, emerges as the focus. She's a ready-made camera presence: sharp, young, emphatic and a tremendous, blazingly confident public speaker."

Lears and co-writer and editor Robin Blotnick were granted full access to the campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez, as well as three other candidates. While Ocasio-Cortez was the only candidate to win her seat, the film captures a "we’re-doing-it-differently-now" ethos that might signal a shift in primary challenges.

Among the profiled candidates is Cori Bush, an African-American woman who failed in her Democratic primary challenge in heavily populated St. Louis County, Missouri, a district that garnered national attention for the Ferguson Riots of 2014.

Also included were Paula Jean Swearengin, a West Virginia anti-fracking activist, who failed to unseat incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin in the Democratic primaries, as well as Amy Vilela, a single mother on food stamps and universal healthcare activist, who came in third in the Democratic primaries for a U.S. House seat in Clark County, Nevada.

Guardian film critic Jordan Hoffman noted that it was obvious by audience reactions at the Sundance Film Festival that many of the viewers clearly knew the candidates and that it wasn't difficult to raise the rafters when you’re preaching to the choir.

Still, the real verve of "Knock Down the House" was in pulling back the curtain on the tedium of running a local campaign. We see the candidates knocking on doors, maintaining a smile after being blown off, working the phones for $50 donations and spending hours verifying collected signatures to ensure they don’t "waste six of your days later in court."

A poignant moment includes Ocasio-Cortez's opponent, 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, sending a proxy in his stead for a scheduled debate. Some could argue that Crowley’s dismissive behavior was his political undoing and perhaps why the New York Times would later run the headline: "An Upset in the Making: Why Joe Crowley Never Saw Defeat Coming."

This "Darwinian lesson," as CNN referred to it, takes some time to come into focus. Near the end of the film, Lears inserts a quote from Ocasio-Cortez that summaries the herculean obstacle primary challengers face.

"It’s just the reality that in order for one of us to make it through, a hundred of us have to try," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Bobby Ilich contributed to this report.