Essential Heightened Scrutiny is an Emotional Call to Action
Concentrating on ACLU attorney Chase Strangio as he prepares to argue before the Supreme Court in December of 2024, Heightened Scrutiny is filmmaker Sam Feder’s follow-up to his award-winning 2020 Netflix documentary Disclosure. Of the two, this is the superior film. There is no sugarcoating the stark uphill realities Strangio and the ACLU are facing. By keeping the spotlight on the lawyer, the remaining tangents feel far more urgent and personal than they would have otherwise.
The Supreme Court case at the center of things is United States v. Skrmetti, an examination of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 (SB1), a 2023 law that prohibits certain medical treatments for Transgender minors, specifically puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Feder begins following Strangio roughly five months before oral arguments are scheduled. The pressure the attorney feels as he processes the magnitude of the case, coupled with being the first openly Transgender lawyer to argue before SCOTUS, is understandably palpable.
But life doesn’t stop in its tracks so Strangio can prepare. The 2024 election is a part of this story, and that means Project 2025 is also a topic of conversation. This leads to a studiously frank examination of how mainstream news sources (specifically the New York Times and The Atlantic) have played a significant role in undermining Transgender access to healthcare, workplace protections, and basic civil rights over the past decade. Feder presents the case with matter-of-fact bluntness and does not resort to sensationalistic editing techniques or storytelling subterfuge, letting these articles stand on their own, while the color commentary by journalists and civil rights activists methodically details their real-world repercussions. There is also an examination of how right-wing media utilized 1960s-era propaganda techniques as a way to attack the Trans community and make disturbing inroads into rolling back civil rights protections for everyone.
A scene of a 12-year-old calling out a New York school board for scrolling on their phones, being rude, and not paying attention in a packed community meeting on Transgender rights slapped me in the face. Moments with Strangio, his friends, and his co-workers following the 2024 election are evocatively stinging. Juxtaposed throughout are audio excerpts from oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, each inserted almost like chapter breaks that feed into the next aspect of the story Feder is telling.
Although the overall focus is on Strangio, primarily this is still an old-school “talking heads”-style documentary, and while this presentation does work, there were moments when I wished the director had pressed subjects to venture more outside of their comfort zones. This is particularly so with New York Times journalist Lydia Polgreen. Despite the emphasis on the paper’s numerous stories augmenting anti-Trans voices with apparently precious little fact-checking, Polgreen is never really part of that conversation. This seemed strange to me.
The other discombobulating aspect is that the documentary ends without a resolution. The whole thing was shot, edited, and completed before the Supreme Court issued its ruling, almost as if the filmmakers were afraid that the downer of the expected outcome would be too much for audiences. (On June 18, SCOTUS upheld the Tennessee ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for Transgender minors, ruling that the law did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment).
Even so, this doc remains essential viewing. Feder has dispensed with the easygoing, nonconfrontational style of Disclosure. Instead, the director has led with their chin, utilizing fact, science, anger, and emotion to cancel right-wing propaganda, talking points, and outright lies. Their anger is palpable. More importantly, it’s justified.
Early on in the film, Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, poignantly states, “I don’t like bullies.” Neither does Heightened Scrutiny. Feder’s documentary is a celebration — not just of Stangio but for everyone, everywhere who is willing to stand up for truth, embrace empathy, and not let themselves get beaten down by authoritarian belligerency. This is a call to action worth heeding, because if we don’t, the next stop could be an Orwellian nightmare we might not be allowed to awaken from.
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
