The Rise of Jordan Peterson (2019)

The Rise of Jordan Peterson review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

There’s a certain appeal to Jordan Peterson that attracts the lacking nature of the so-called apolitical centrists. He’s a professor from the University of Toronto who seemed about as stuffy and routinely rambling of philosophical ideas and ponderings. But as the discourse soon bubbled and the heat rose within the discussion of politics, Peterson’s voice rose. Thus he became a symbol for a very particular group of people who felt as though acknowledging transgender people went against a natural order.

Of course, in trying to keep the documentary more focused on the man than his influence, this film favors portraying Peterson more as a man of vocal views than some iconic hero or villain of the modern era. I disagree with his doubling down of how the noting of pronouns will somehow force us into some totalitarian state. But the film does provide some evidence as to how he arrived to this point. His many talks are soon interrupted by protesters who call for his language as transphobic and engaging with fascists. When confronted with such accusations made loudly, the choice Peterson has made is to go even more aggressive. If this is the battle line he must draw, he does so with a neutral face, as though this is the only logical path.

But even when Peterson seems to have chosen his path, he seems to dance around the subject. In his many interviews out of lectures, he seems to waver in his stance and offers up no solution. He brings up how women wearing makeup can be sexually stimulating in the work environment and that it may be a factor in workplace harassment. Should makeup be banned from work, as one reporter asks? I don’t know, states Peterson. This is a common exit for him when it comes to his ideas on the nature of the world and decides to shrug at what must be done or where we should go next as a society. It’s that indecision that can easily attract the worst in people. Where others identify the next step to make the world a better place, Peterson favors a wait-and-see approach to the world’s problems.

There’s a sobering element, however, to viewing Peterson in this light. In his many philosophical lectures, he poses interesting ideas, even if not all of them are as well thought out. In interviews, however, he seems unsure and sometimes even admits he MAY be wrong. This brings out a human side of the man who seems like there’s at least a portion of him willing to grow even if he seems to be engaged with the battles of those who disagree with him. The film does a fairly decent job of showcasing him in this light even if it feels like there are a few more troubling elements left just out of frame.

That’s the best that can be said of what this film does for the portrayal of Jordan Peterson. It doesn’t present him as an alt-right soldier who has taken the reigns to lead the culture warriors into battle against those evil transgenders. But it does portray him as a grumpy old professor with dated views that are so easily praised and promoted by the alt-right. There’s little present within the documentary for those not already familiar with Peterson’s work that will reveal more about him though. Well, unless you believed Peterson was some alt-right knight. He’s not; just a grumpy old man who grumpier young men can hold up as their idol, a repetition of being baffled and frustrated by something new they don’t fully understand.