There’s no time like the present, and time heals all wounds (a stretch, but we’ll go with it), but time waits for no one — not even the bro-heavy, bitcoin-crazed, anti-government crowd that put the annual festival gathering known as Anarchapulco on the map. And not just the map of Mexico.
For six years, beginning in 2015, documentary filmmaker Todd Schramke followed the alternately liberating and scary fortunes of several key players in the Anarchapulco community, many of whom settled in Acapulco. The result is the six-part documentary series “The Anarchists.” The individual storylines offered Schramke and his colleagues a potentially gripping and increasingly chilling array of complications involving drugs, debauchery, warring mission statements, suicide and murder, the last likely committed by a drug cartel.
I say “potentially” because HBO’s series proceeds with a frustrating lack of selectivity and focus, as if the whole project had gotten too much sun. There are fascinating subjects here, especially Lily Forester, a heartbreaking and mordantly witty presence throughout. She and her partner known as John Galton — like several Anarchapulco devotees, Galton’s name adopts a variation on the name of the libertarian superman John Galt of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” — have fled the U.S. and their former lives for the promise of a freer existence among their fellow seekers.
– Original Credit: Todd Schramke
The entrepreneurial brainchild behind “Anarchapulco,” a Canadian named Jeff Berwick, invites filmmaker Schramke into his perpetually shifting world in a tourist destination clouded by its reputation for bloody danger. The first year’s attendees numbered around 150. They grew quickly from there, and in 2017, with the explosion of cryptocurrency, the world’s largest “anarcho-capitalist” convention became insufferable to many. What happens when an anti-corporate entity seeks and finds major corporate sponsorship?
Other principal subjects include Nathan and Lisa Freeman and their kids, who left suburban Atlanta and the life of squares for Anarchapulco, Acapulco and a wild cryptocurrency ride. Everyone has secrets, and demons, and if “The Anarchists” has a theme, it’s the price of trying to outrun your own internal crises and childhood trauma.
A lot of “The Anarchists” is plain sad; some of it hits hard. But a lot of it wanders and reiterates and generally feels like a first-draft warmup for a fictionalized two-hour version to be produced, oh, let’s say, for the sake of argument, by Blumhouse Productions. The HBO doc is, in fact, a “Blumhouse Television Production.” It’s not bad, but sometimes a six-part series ends up being ideal for viewers who have the approximate six hours to see past a project’s padding to a leaner, more purposeful version of its own story.
“The Anarchists” — 2 stars (out of 4)
Content rating: TV-MA (language, violence)
Running time: Six episodes, approximately six hours
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How to watch: Premieres 9 p.m. July 10. New episodes each week on HBO; streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
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