"Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 Is A Wake Up Call .

In the shadowy corridors of Raoul Peck’s documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5,” George Orwell emerges not just as a literary figure but as a prophet whose warnings resonate louder than ever in our algorithm-driven dystopia.

As someone who has read “1984” more times than I can count—first as a rebellious teenager sneaking reads under the covers, and later as an adult grappling with the flood of fake news—I approached this documentary with high hopes. Peck, known for the powerful “I Am Not Your Negro,” presents a biopic with a twist, weaving Orwell’s insightful thoughts from his diaries, letters, and novels to illuminate today’s troubling realities.

The film serves as a timely reminder that “who controls the past controls the future,” a line that resonates in an era when AI-generated chatbots proliferate “newspeak” and book bans threaten libraries in the South.

Peck traces Orwell’s life from his days in colonial Burma to his final months battling tuberculosis, where he wrote “1984” amid personal turmoil. Narrated with a gravelly intensity by Damian Lewis, the film combines archival footage, cinematic nods to adaptations of “Animal Farm” and “1984,” and stark modern parallels: Russian propaganda machines, surveillance capitalism (with a cameo by Edward Snowden), and the glossy traps of the metaverse.

The title’s reference to enforced unreality—2+2=5 as the ultimate submission to power—fuels a meditation on how authoritarianism distorts truth, from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to Trump’s “alternative facts.” Peck’s bold style juxtaposes Orwell’s words against clips of war-torn cities and right-wing rallies, creating a collage that is both intellectually stimulating and visually striking.

However, for all its urgency, the documentary occasionally feels like a lecture, focusing more on Orwell’s relevance than on the complexity of the man himself. The WWII bombing sequences, while harrowing, seem like overused stock footage, and the emphasis on brutality sometimes overshadows the subtle mental manipulations that make Orwell’s vision so chilling.

The film lacks the poetic depth of Peck’s Baldwin portrait, leaning more towards didactic alarm than an exploration of the “sinister unreality” that fascism breeds in the mind. Still, in a world where truth is commodified and minds are mined for data, “Orwell: 2+2=5” is essential viewing.

It not only honors a brilliant writer but also prepares us for the algorithms that are closing in. Peck reminds us that personal freedom requires vigilance; otherwise, we may all find ourselves rewriting history through doublethink. I would give it a solid 8/10—provocative, insightful, and perfectly timed for our post-truth reality.

Final Grade: B+

“Orwell: 2+2=5” is available on numerous platforms for streaming