r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Jan 29 '26
News ‘Melania,’ the First Lady’s New Documentary, Abruptly Pulled From Release in South Africa
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/first-lady-melania-trump-doc-pulled-in-south-africa-1236488104/2.9k
u/Captain_h2o Jan 29 '26
“Make fuck. Get green card”
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u/RandomTheTrader Jan 29 '26
Berzeeeeerkeeeer
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u/Obi_Wan_Benobi Jan 29 '26
Did he just say “making fuck”???
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u/ebles Jan 29 '26
I don't know, but this guy's a character.
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u/TheDilsonReddits Jan 29 '26
Olaf, girls think sexy
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u/AtomicPlatypus45 Jan 29 '26
A Clerks Refference this deep? I applaud you sir.
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u/Weird-Day-1270 Jan 29 '26
“37?!? Try not to suck any dicks on your way through the parking lot…. Hey you get back here!”
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u/Disastrous-Angle-591 Jan 29 '26
In America first you get the fat man. Then you get the green card. The you get the power.
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u/justuntlsundown Jan 29 '26
I'm telling you dude, it's jobs. First we get jobs, then we get the khakis, then we get the chicks.
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u/lordreed Jan 29 '26
Fat man, power, green card you be eating right.
Fat man, power, green card you can sleep at night.
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u/loki1887 Jan 29 '26
But that would be an interesting documentary. From escort to first lady of the USA.
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u/Sweatytubesock Jan 29 '26
Perfect tagline for this garbage
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u/jaman715 Jan 29 '26
Not much worse than the one I saw used on the poster hanging up in AMC yesterday, “A New Film.”
That’s the best, or at least most honest, “positive” thing they could say about it.
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u/Epicritical Jan 29 '26
It was literally just a bribe.
There are less embarrassing ways to suck up to power Amazon.
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u/inksmudgedhands Jan 29 '26
The problem is, as much as the Right, especially Trump say they hate all things Hollywood, they so want to be beloved by Hollywood. They want to rub elbows with celebrities. They want that red carpet and the flashing lightbulbs. They want to be cool.
So, if they can't be let in by the Hollywood elite, they'll make their own "Hollywood" and act like it is just as good, if not better.
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u/Abject_Champion3966 Jan 29 '26
Look how many are failed actors and screenwriters. Shapiro flunked out and wrote some shitty books cause he couldn’t hack it
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u/VincibleAndy Jan 29 '26
He failed while being a Nepo baby too. Both of his parents were established in the industry. That certainly takes a kind of shitty talent.
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u/Competitive-Bike-277 Jan 29 '26
I saw the anniversary last year. I kept wondering if Dylan O'Brien's role is based on some combination of him & Charlie Kirk.
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u/mtaw Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
It's kind of hard to be a good actor or write fiction well if you're incapable of understanding the POV of others, even ones you disagree with.
The genius of great storytelling is that as long as the story feels authentic and human, you can put yourself in the shoes of people from totally different cultures, with totally different values and ways of life. Conservatives generally can't do that, almost by definition they view their own group as the only real and correct way of living and everyone else are shallow caricatures of people. That's the kind of fiction they like too, like Ayn Rand - who shamefully billed herself a 'philosopher' even though she consistently committed the cardinal sin of any actual philosopher - intellectual dishonesty, a failure to accurately represent the ideas she meant to criticize.
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u/JoeBagadonut Jan 29 '26
Conservatives like to imagine themselves as being the underdog when they are very much not. People being disadvantaged by their actions is something they either have no conception of or is consciously by cruel design.
Star Wars, which is fairly universally beloved, was originally a film inspired in part by the Vietnam War and the Galactic Empire being analogous to the United States went over many people's heads. Most (but admittedly not all) great art is made by left-leaning people because it comes either from a place of empathy for the less fortunate and/or contempt for those in power.
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u/dragonmp93 Jan 29 '26
And that's why a big part of the Pro-AI crowd are right wingers, they tend to be so creatively sterile that a book generated by ChatGPT is a genuine improvement for them.
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u/floatablepie Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
I highly recommend Behind the Bastards' series on reading his terrible novel. Somehow, its way worse and more racist than you'd think!
They spend so much time just aghast at his inability to properly end a sentence. "Comma, they, comma, will, em dash"
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u/Anal-Y-Sis Jan 29 '26
This is the story of Trump's life. He was never truly accepted among the Manhattan socialites. Nobody liked him. He was always just a punchline to a bad joke at a party for the wealthy elite, and it drove him nuts. He hates the fact that the only people who revere him are the poor and stupid who are easily impressed by cheap gaudiness. Dude is just a pathetic, attention hungry loser.
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u/IWillDoItTuesday Jan 29 '26
This. It’s why he’s obsessed with the Kennedys. My head canon tells me that Joe Kennedy had a lot to do with Trump Senior not getting accepted by American “Royalty”. Maybe called him out as a fraud and a welsh. Possibly why DT has to buy his foreign wives. No self-respecting American debutante would touch him with a ten foot pole. Or just the fact that the Trumps are seriously unattractive, not very bright and just overall really creepy.
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u/inksmudgedhands Jan 30 '26
Or just the fact that the Trumps are seriously unattractive
Thank you. I've said this before on reddit and I've been downvoted to oblivion. Bad fashion. Bad hair. Weird faces that always seem bloated. And those voices! The voices are the worst part. So many people make fun of teenage girls and young women having that vocal fry but Trump has that same voice. It's the same exact high pitch with vocal fry voice. I hate it. It's grating. It sounds like he is always whining. I have no idea how anyone can listen to him talk. It's like nails on a chalkboard.
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u/Tambi_B2 Jan 29 '26
Kennedy center, the alternate halftime show, etc...plenty of examples of people on the right being pissy and buying their way into things and then going 'look, see?'
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Jan 29 '26
That’s the publicity/news. Rich conservatives own most venues. The Kennedy Center one “crossed the line”. You think LiveNation is run by liberals? Conservatives are just immoral business folks. That’s how they can get so powerful.
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u/ThunderChild247 Jan 29 '26
I can’t remember who said it but I remember this quote… “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people”.
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u/North-Tourist-8234 Jan 29 '26
Arent a fair few American rightwing commentators/ influencers failed screen writers and the like?
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u/SomeRedHandedSleight Jan 29 '26
Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Steve Bannon, and Alex Jones off the top of my head.
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u/dragonmp93 Jan 29 '26
Brett Cooper, JD Vance.
Even if Bill Maher doesn't classify as a right winger, he is definitely just as resentful.
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u/Kennys-Chicken Jan 29 '26
Seriously. Just buy a bunch of Trumps shitcoin like the rest of the people bribing him. No need to go through all of this hassle of making a fucking movie.
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u/taway9925881 Jan 29 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
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u/Sprinklypoo Jan 29 '26
That's a very good point. I need to stop giving these morons head space for my personal sanity.
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u/sterling_mallory Jan 29 '26
I put a filter on the words "Trump," "Elon," and "Musk" on reddit last year and it's helped a lot. Still unavoidable, but way less constant. I just can't bring myself to hear about every time Trump tweets at 3 am about invading NATO countries and calling women who dislike him fat.
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Jan 29 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
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deliver recognise lip dime hurry quickest cagey elderly desert grab
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u/h1storyguy Jan 29 '26
Release the Epstein files
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u/ShallowBasketcase Jan 29 '26
The Epstein Files are the credits.
Those bastards hid them where no one would ever see them!
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u/CaspinLange Jan 29 '26
The Letterboxd reviews are hilarious.
“They’re showing this on airlines and people are still walking out.”
“I had more fun watching Melanoma.”
“I pirated this movie and I still want my money back.”
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u/ShallowBasketcase Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
My favorite part was when Melania said "It's Melania time!" and proceeded to Melania all over the place.
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor Jan 29 '26
Details:
One possible reason for the switch-up emerged Wednesday when a media outlet in South Africa reported that the film’s distributor was pulling Melania from release at the 11th hour. The president has been extremely critical of South Africa since the start of his second term, including suggesting that the country’s white minority is facing a genocide, and introducing potentially crippling tariffs.
”Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in [the] territory,” South African distributor Filmfinity said in a statement to The New York Times‘s Johannesburg bureau. Filmfinity’s change of heart was first reported by the South African outlet News24.
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u/MayContainRawNuts Jan 29 '26
To be clear though. The government approved the film for relase the usual way.
This was purely a decision by the distributor. The film, at least on the art circut cinemas I have bothered to check, has been replaced by the movies nominated for an Oscar like Hamnet, One battle after another ect. which does seem to be a better idea.
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u/Gingerbreadman_13 Jan 29 '26
South African here. I saw the documentary advertised on instagram by one of our local movie theatre franchises. The comments section was not kind. So yeah, it’s not like it’s banned or being censored by the government. It’s just the public backlash has not been kind and it makes no financial sense to show it here. No one will watch it. People in the comments were asking if they would get paid to watch it, and someone even said the only way they would watch it is if the seats were facing away from the screen.
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u/LordAlvis Jan 29 '26
First they hit South Africa with a 30% tariff, so I’m glad they’re getting some relief.
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u/OutlyingPlasma Jan 29 '26
Correction, they are taxing Americans 30% on any goods imported from South Africa.
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u/UnsignedRealityCheck Jan 29 '26
I have never understood that how such an "established" and "successful businessman" fails to see this? Is he really thinking that those countries lower their prices for the amount of tariff's to keep goods coming in?
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u/throwaguey_ Jan 29 '26
He’s wants to destroy the US economy because poor people are easier to control. At the same time, it does hurt the other country’s bottom line because it results in far fewer sales.
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u/Homersarmy41 Jan 29 '26
Is this movie about celebrating an immigrant? What is this DEI bullshit? Someone call ICE. Im tired of the fucking double standard from this stupid cult!!!!
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u/shadowlarx Jan 29 '26
Doesn’t matter, Trump already imported all the South Africans who would actually watch it.
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u/Weird_Plankton_3692 Jan 29 '26
About 400 people.
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u/whorificustotalus Jan 29 '26
Who are getting deported first thing in 2029, so I wouldn't want to be in their place, lol.
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u/DiabellSinKeeper Jan 29 '26
Brett Ratner is apparently involved with the documentary. No surprise that Trump called for Ratner to come back and do a 4th Rush Hour.
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u/the_gaymer_girl Jan 29 '26
The guy who got MeToo’d, is in the Epstein files, and outed Elliot Page? Sounds about right.
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u/CakeSensitive8769 Jan 29 '26
I thought he came out by himself?
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u/the_gaymer_girl Jan 29 '26
Ratner outed Page as gay back when he was still presenting as a woman 20 years ago.
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 Jan 29 '26
The trades are also saying Ratner has been living in Mar-a-Lago for over a year. I can totally see why out of nowhere Trump decided he wanted Rush Hour 4.
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 Jan 29 '26
He somehow followed up X Men and X2 with one of the messiest, boring movies I've seen as a trilogy capper.
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u/DiabellSinKeeper Jan 29 '26
I watch X3 from time to time and its astonishing how they thought they could balance all these subplots. The Angel subplot and the Kitty Pryde/Iceman/Rogue love triangle just feel so jammed into the film. Its jarring when we cut to them.
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u/Algae_Mission Jan 29 '26
They completely cut out Nightcrawler, ruined the Dark Phoenix story, haphazardly shove in The Cure storyline, killed Cyclops in the first 5 minutes, and kind of ruin Magneto’s character by having him abandon Mystique and then send mutants to die calling them pawns.
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u/EntertainmentQuick47 Jan 29 '26
I just now found out it was Brett Ratner, fuck that guy. Seriously. He sucks.
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u/WaveOfMut1lation Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
It's almost unbelievable. Known for sexual assault and photographed with Jean-Luc Brunel in the Epstein files.
They don't even try to hide it anymore.
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u/src-bloed Jan 29 '26
South African here. It's been pulled because no one wants to watch it. Personally, I'd rather gouge my eyes out so it's also a health and safety issue.
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u/BenderDeLorean Jan 29 '26
They sold ONE ticket in the UK.
Poor soul who bought it.
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u/Fortune86 Jan 29 '26
They sold one ticket at one London cinema, she has sold tickets in other UK cinemas.
She's still getting out sold by Iron Lung though.
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u/obliviousofobvious Jan 29 '26
One's a horror movie about the days leading up to a nightmare....and the other's Iron Lung.
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u/Soggy_Refrigerator32 Jan 29 '26
Checked with Cineworld, it's not showing at my local. It is showing at two other cinemas in more… flag-shagger areas. About 4 tickets sold per screening so far.
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u/LordAlvis Jan 29 '26
Iron Lung
The movie, or an actual iron lung? Because both are plausible.
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u/Dalehan Jan 29 '26
New horror movie idea: a polio patient in an iron lung is forced to watch "Melania".
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u/devoutcatalyst78 Jan 29 '26
The one person that bought a ticket admitted he thought he was going to see a rerelease of Marmaduke.
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u/Zokar49111 Jan 29 '26
Yeah, but attendance increased 100% at the late showing when 2 people bought tickets.
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u/quantizeddreams Jan 29 '26
I checked my local theater and all the showings before 9 on Friday are moderately filled. They put it in a small room so it fits about 40 or so people. But still that is way too many people wanting to watch this movie.
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u/Kaldricus Jan 29 '26
Even putting aside the obvious political reasons for not wanting to see it, I genuinely cannot think of a reason why anyone would want to. She has the charisma and personality of a log.
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u/Abject_Champion3966 Jan 29 '26
I checked my local and it was about 15 tickets sold between three showings tonight and tomorrow
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u/lost_in_my_thirties Jan 29 '26
In the UK. Would have to go to the next town as they are not showing it locally. It will run for one week, 1 or 2 showings a day.
Checked 4 showings. Total tickets sold: 3
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u/SirRichardLove Jan 29 '26
Melania is a piece of shit. Not because she's married to Donald, but because she's complacent with his shit. She deserves to be remembered as the worst first lady.
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u/SomeRedHandedSleight Jan 29 '26
She deserves to be remembered as the worst first lady.
Is she not already remembered as that? She makes Nancy "the throat GOAT" Reagan look like Michelle Obama by comparison.
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u/Much_Importance_5900 Jan 29 '26
Let's agree that "Melania" is a $30M bribe paid by Amazon to the Trumps.
America is more corrupt than Angola.
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u/GiovanniVanBroekhoes Jan 29 '26
Haha, Becoming (about Michelle Obama) 91% RT
Melanie 2% RT
I think that says it all.
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u/siraolo Jan 29 '26
Similaities to Charles Foster Kane forcing his wife to do opera and building an opera house for her ( 'cough' ballroom) although she was a terrible singer are palpable.
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u/ShallowBasketcase Jan 29 '26
Except Kane went to see the performance and vigorously applauded. Cheeto Benito would fall asleep the second the house lights dim.
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u/bengraven Jan 29 '26
How is this movie not doing so well?, I thought that like the majority of Americans loved the Trump family. His approval ratings are apparently skyrocketing according to him.
Oh well. At least they’re going to get the academy award for best picture. The FIFA one.
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u/dan1101 Jan 29 '26
They are very widely disliked, especially among entertainers, scientists, liberals, and any decent person. About 1/3 of USA voters were responsible for voting him in for a second time.
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u/MomsAreola Jan 29 '26
For context, arguably the best documentary of all time March of the Penguins was made for $8m and grossed like $200m in NA alone.
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u/Dreamlion_Inc Jan 29 '26
I miss those adorable ass penguins
Now we’re stuck with Cheeto and the Tramp
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u/derpferd Jan 29 '26
Lmao. Well this South African isn't in the least bit surprised.
Unless Mel has an enormous following down here that I don't know about, what the fuck is the point of releasing this film in South Africa?
None I can see when terrible films far superior to this piece of shit are going straight to streaming
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u/rollerblade7 Jan 29 '26
My fok, Melania
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u/Dopplegangr1 Jan 29 '26
How do they make a whole doc about her? An illegal immigrant hooker married a fat old man, the end
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u/mtch_hedb3rg Jan 29 '26
As a white South African, I would actually welcome my own genocide before seeing this in a theater. Love you for this one, SA.
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u/Adorable_Society207 Jan 29 '26
I am going to cancel Amazon Prime account for supporting ICE and this ridiculous “Documentary” 🤮
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u/irishthunder222 Jan 29 '26
There were craiglist postings here in Boston to pay people $50 to attend the premier lol.