4 Hours at the Capitol

Arriving less than 10 months after Donald Trump’s supporters ransacked the United States of America’s seat of government in an attempt to forestall the certification of the country’s presidential election results, the new documentary Four Hours at the Capitol lands somewhat understandably as more of a rough first draft of history than a wholly refined, polished overview of the events of January 6, 2021. And yet, within that framework and context, it’s still a gut-punch work — a movie which, by way of its telling, grapples with the question of whether the alternate political and social realities in which Americans are seemingly living can coexist with the foundational principles of democracy, and in the end, sadly, affords no easy answer.