Banned 'anti-migrant' movie 'Citizen Vigilante' shoots to No. 1 after Elon Musk intervention

A film that is triggering progressive critics is becoming a viral sensation after the director called it "an inconvenient truth."

The movie stars actor Armie Hammer as a man who takes justice into his own hands after he feels the government and law enforcement have failed to protect their citizens.

'Racist, xenophobic, ethnocentrist.'

'X' rated

"Citizen Vigilante" has been called "anti-migrant," "racist, xenophobic," and "incomprehensible," yet audiences seem to love it.

With a fan score of 94% on popular review site Rotten Tomatoes, critics seem once again to be at odds with audiences while drawing a political line in the sand.

A huge social media push has seen the movie top the streaming charts, with multiple outlets reporting on Monday that "Citizen Vigilante" soared to No. 1 on Amazon Prime's "Top 10 movies to rent or buy," where it still stood at the time of this writing.

The film was reportedly No. 2 on Apple TV's top movie list on Monday as well.

This all came after X owner Elon Musk posted "Citizen Vigilante" for free download on his platform last Thursday — with director Uwe Boll's permission — garnering at least 8 million views by Musk's own account.

Boll responded on X, "Dear Elon thank you. Donald Trump needs to see the film."

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Banned abroad

By all accounts, the film draws on anti-immigration sentiments that are becoming popular around the world, and even references real-life migrant crimes for its story.

The movie has already been banned in Germany because it was found to be "inciting violence against migrants," director Boll told Variety in June.

Boll called it "deliberate censorship" that was "on purpose."

In an email to Newsweek, the director said his movie "shows an inconvenient truth what all other movies out there don't want to show or try to sugarcoat in their productions."

Boll added, "The audience wants real films again — bold and with impact and about reality."

Bans and negative reviews have been overtaken by the film's momentum, and the flick was just acquired by Quiver Distribution for a worldwide push, except for in the U.K., German-speaking territories, South Korea, and Taiwan.

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Many such (angry) cases

Many critics have not enjoyed the film, with some reviewers declining to even score it.

For example, Stefan Birgir Stefans called the film "brain dead" and gave no score, while Variety's Todd Gilchrist similarly gave no rating and said the director was "deliberately sabotaging his star."

Nicholas Bell said the film was "magnifying its xenophobia through the beacon of far-right agitprop," while Joseph Robinson called it "a discriminatory parable."

It was U.K. outlet the Guardian that dubbed "Citizen Vigilante" as "anti-migrant" on Tuesday, with Ready Steady Cut describing the film as "utterly incurious and incomprehensible, but politically barbed."

Critic Jonathon Wilson argued the film was for people who believe "immigrants are to blame for all the violent crimes in the West to see as a rubric for defending their homeland."

Tyler Thier of In Review Online summarized the movie as "racist, xenophobic, ethnocentrist, alt-right agitprop manufactured to piss off the 'woke Left.'"

The consistent use of "agitprop" by reviewers is, interestingly enough, a reference to pro-communist propaganda used by the Soviet Union.

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