‘This Place Rules’ — an unnerving portrait of the US

Andrew Callaghan, Jaden Spencer and Brandon Spencer. Image: Courtesy of HBO

By Joel Ontong

1 Feb 2023

American journalist and YouTuber Andrew Callaghan, who is facing allegations of sexual misconduct, directs his feature-length debut, creating an absurd and deeply troubling portrait of the United States. With a bevvy of interviews, the documentary takes a fresh look at the events leading to the 6 January Capitol riots.

When a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the United States of America’s Capitol building on 6 January 2021, the country was shaken to its core. The riot was in response to Trump’s presidential loss against Joe Biden. Thousands of Trump’s supporters participated, contesting the result of the election. The event is now considered a blight on American history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_rX9S6sU8

This Place Rules is a brief and frenetic exploration of the events that led to the 6 January riots. It is from the perspective of American journalist Andrew Callaghan and his team as they were interviewing different people, gonzo-style, before 6 January.

The film was released to a warm reception by fans and critics, but mere days after its debut on HBO, Callaghan was accused of sexual misconduct. Two victims claimed that Callaghan had sexually coerced them and made sexual advances without consent. Due to the victims coming forward, some of the collaborators who worked on This Place Rules have severed ties with Callaghan. The first allegation against Callaghan was posted on TikTok, by a user named Caroline Elise (@cornbreadasserole). Elise alleged that Callaghan pressured her into engaging in sexual acts with him. Elise stated that she was clear about not wanting to engage in any sexual acts with him, but he eventually ‘wore her down’ until she agreed to do things she “wasn't proud of”.

The second accuser, named Dana (@moldyfreckle), also uploaded a video onto TikTok. While driving Callaghan home, she was kissed by him, then he touched her sexually, even though she had told him to stop repeatedly, Dana alleged in the video.

Several other people have also posted comments or videos which claim that Callaghan had sexually coercive behaviour.

Callaghan has released a response video in light of the allegations. In the video, Callaghan thanked and apologised to the people who came forward about his inappropriate behaviour. However, he did not address any single person or allegations. Callaghan also said in the video that he would seek therapy to examine his behaviour and step back from public life.

He is known for his All Gas No Brakes (which no longer runs) and Channel 5 series on YouTube, where he and his team go across the US, covering a range of events and topics, from the 2020 Minneapolis riots, in response to the murder of George Floyd, to flat-earth conferences. Their videos can often, but not always, be comedic, featuring zany graphics, jarring edits, abrupt zooms and cartoonish interviews.

'This Place Rules'. (Image: Courtesy of HBO)

The documentary focuses on the extremities of American culture, capturing the political climate that preceded the riots. Callaghan interviews a wide cast of colourful street personalities, but he also interviews some controversial figures, including infamous conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones and the leader of the far-right organisation The Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio.

Callaghan and his crew take their gonzo approach to capture street interviews and apply it to the feature-length format. Though this edit-heavy style could have resulted in an exhausting viewing experience, it makes the one-hour and 22-minute documentary thoroughly engaging. Its compact runtime is filled to the brim with memorable interviews; it even fits in some unexpected narrative twists.

The documentary aims to paint a dark and surreal portrait of the US, back when it was in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic and unsettled by polarisation and political uncertainty. To establish its theme of ‘battling’, where cultures, ideologies and political parties square off, the documentary opens with events preceding an actual fight between two people. It starts with a boxing match: on the one side is social media influencer Joker Gang (whose facial tattoos make him look like the actual comic book villain) and an online stuntman called Gum Gang. The sequence, which is used by Callaghan and his crew to introduce the audience to their contorted version of the US, feels uniquely American in its violent and over-the-top entertainment.

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Throughout the film, Callaghan interviews many right-wing individuals with radical beliefs, several being QAnon believers. Members of QAnon believe that — amongst other conspiracy theories — there was a group of satanic, cannibalistic, child abusers who operated at a global level, and were trying to take down then-president Trump; they believe that this secret organisation has many elite members, such as Hollywood celebrities and politicians. Callaghan’s numerous interviews with QAnon members beg the question of why he is giving these conspiracy theorists a platform, even though he often presents them in a mocking way. That extends to his interviews with Alex Jones, where Jones is portrayed as an oaf. Yet, the documentary’s extended interviews with conspiracy theorists, especially Jones — who has caused severe harm to the American public and especially the families of the Sandy Hook victims — still feel ethically dubious.

Andrew Callaghan and protesters. Image: Courtesy of HBO

Andrew Callaghan, Jaden Spencer and Brandon Spencer. Image: Courtesy of HBO

Callaghan rarely injects his own voice into the film’s narrative, but instead chooses to let the absurdity of the interviews speak for themselves. But the line between what the film condemns and what it condones becomes unclear at times. A few moments in the film become an ideological Rorschach test, where viewers can choose what to agree with and what to laugh at; caricatures of interviewees are consistently constructed, creating the impression of fanatical sport fans, aggressively showing support for their favourite team, or in this case political candidate.

There is one powerful sequence where Callaghan fully inserts himself into the film’s narrative and provides his own insight. Callaghan points his microphone at a child who reels off QAnon talking points as if he had prepared them for an oral exam. The film’s narrative lingers on him and his siblings; Callaghan plays and interacts with the children and then talks to their parents, showing how the latter has completely informed their warped worldview. The children are partially absolved for blindly believing QAnon theories and the blame squarely falls on the parents.

The scene goes from shocking, to tragic to chilling. In the very next section, Callaghan visits a predominantly African American community who live near the QAnon family; he interviews residents to get their reactions on a recent case of police brutality in the area and later expresses the sympathy he feels for the community and the real struggles that they endure. Moments like these give the viewer a clearer understanding of Callaghan’s views.

The film tries to show each side of every battle. It upholds convenient binaries like democrats versus republicans, Antifa vs. the Proud Boys, and CNN versus Fox News, but it is clear that those on the right are held in greater contempt. With this in mind, it becomes slightly ironic that the film includes a scene of Alex Jones explaining how he purposely dumbs down his rhetoric to make his content easily digestible for his viewers. Jones too creates convenient binaries to sell a narrative to his viewers, which he can then exploit for profit.

The core message of the film is that those in power, be it Donald J Trump, Alex Jones or Enrique Tarrio have exploited their followers for personal gain. The film illustrates how the Capitol riots were engineered by these influential right-wing figures, while they themselves were absent during the event. The final sequences of the film contain some profound moments of lucidity while sketching a larger context — about the terrible insurrection on the American Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on 6 January 2021. DM/ML

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