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For those unfamiliar with the premise, 2016: Obama's America follows bestselling author Dinesh D'Souza's carefully chosen steps as he travels the world in an attempt to better understand Barack Obama. The journey takes him from the Hawaiian Islands to Indonesia; from the slums of Nairobi, Kenya to the seat of the world's largest superpower in Washington, D.C. Along the way he interviews relatives, scholars, and other sources of information on Obama's life. This movie should not be mistaken for a conspiracy theorist's quest for truth on Obama. There are no baseless charges or accusations based on the place of Obama's birth, religion or college transcripts. In fact, about fifteen minutes into D'Souza's film he matter-of-factly states Obama was born in Hawaii, as was reported by two Hawaiian newspapers on the day of his birth. Even Slate's Dave Weigel begrudgingly acknowledges D'Souza stands on "mostly solid" ground, steering clear of conspiracy charges making rounds in conservative circles. Instead, D'Souza intentionally traces the steps of Obama's upbringing, attempting to explain Obama's sometimes baffling decisions. Decisions like returning a bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain at the beginning of his presidency, delaying the construction of the Keystone pipeline while giving money to South American countries to drill for oil, cherry-picking where to intervene in the Middle East (e.g. using force in Libya but not Iran or Syria), reducing America's nuclear arsenal while making no moves to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons, and reducing NASA's mission to Muslim outreach are all examined. D'Souza's conclusion? Obama is an anti-colonialist. Anti-colonialism, D'Souza explains, is the worldview that sees America's net effect in the world as bad, not good. It also is the belief that America and European countries got wealthy not through capitalism, entrepreneurship, and innovation, but by exploiting Third World countries and stealing their natural resources. Through interviews with Obama's father's friends and colleagues, and a close examination of some of Barack Sr.'s written work, D'Souza shows that Obama's father espoused this very worldview. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, though only married to Barack Sr. for a short time, always loved and respected him. By reading passages from Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, D'Souza shows that Ann passed many of Obama's father's beliefs to our president when they lived in Indonesia with her second husband during Obama's childhood. As Obama grew older, he began associating himself only with leftwing radicals. A passage from Dreams reveals Obama picked his friends "carefully", choosing to associate himself only with those who shared his political and cultural beliefs. Some of these associations are just scary. Frank Marshall Davis became a close mentor of Obama's during his formative years. In Dreams from My Father, Obama mentions Davis numerous times attesting to their close relationship. Davis was a Communist Party member who was under constant surveillance by the FBI, who had direct orders to pick him up immediately if war ever broke out between the Soviet Union and the United States. Of course, there are also the more well-known associations of Obama like Bill Ayers, the known leftwing terrorist, and Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of more than 20 years. The relationships between these men and Obama are all explored at length during the film. Some of the interviews in the movie score major points. While in Kenya, D'Souza brings one of Obama's father's wives three goats for the right to talk to talk to her (even though her speaking fee was just one). She quickly turns cold, however, after a phone call and tells Dinesh he must leave. Many of Obama's father's friends and relatives who met Barack when he visited Kenya after his father's death, describe the father's and son's ideology as identical. This is especially chilling after D'Souza shows an article authored by Barack Sr. in which he states it would be theoretically okay to tax people with tax rates as high as 100% as long as they were compensated in return with commensurate government services. D'Souza's coup de grace has to be his time spent with Obama's half-brother George Obama. George is also a scholar of sorts having authored a book a couple of years ago. Unfortunately for George, however, he deviates from the family's anti-colonialist beliefs; thus he is largely ostracized from his family and lives on a couple bucks a day in a small hut in Nairobi, Kenya. George believes that white people, meaning Americans and Europeans, were good for the development of Third World countries. He even goes as far to say that white people were even a net positive in countries like South Africa, where the native population was oppressed and discriminated against for centuries by their colonialists. For proof, George points to the economic development of countries like South Korea, Singapore and South Africa which were once on economic par with Kenya but have now far surpassed the economic prowess of the central African country mired in poverty. The end of the movie turns into a horror show as D'Souza speculates what Obama might wish to do in a second term. In short: You ain't seen nothin' yet. With good reason, D'Souza believes we will see higher taxes, more spending, more attempts to lower the number of nuclear warheads in the U.S. and no resistance to our enemies building their arsenals. Most frighteningly, D'Souza fears a United States of Islam might emerge in the Middle East, isolating Israel even more from the rest of the world. Credit is also due to Dinesh: He lets you see when he falls short. Throughout the course of the interview with George Obama, D'Souza tries to get George to say that Barack should help him more. Instead, George gently demurs and states that he is an adult and perfectly capable of taking care of himself. George says that Barack has enough on his plate without having to help his half-brother he only met once a long time ago. Instead of editing this bit out, however, D'Souza leaves it in, confident enough to let you in on his shortcomings. This is where the similarities to Michael Moore end. While the documentary employs the same slick editing and fast pace of a Moore documentary, it employs none of the ambush/gotcha-style interview tactics commonly seen in Moore's films. As I write this 2016 has surpassed the $20 million mark in ticket revenues, making it the fifth largest political documentary of all-time. To say that the low cost endeavor, with virtually no promotional backing but heavily-promoted by talk radio, has surpassed expectations would be an understatement. The NY Daily News goes as far to proclaim that the movie has "shocked" industry insiders. For comparison, Rocky Mountain Pictures, the studio behind 2016, had previously never produced a film that surpassed even $12 million. All in all, D'Souza has given us a highly entertaining and informative feature-length documentary that is well worth the price of admission. Even for someone like me, who follows the news religiously through several mediums, I exited the theater feeling like a I learned a lot about our president, his worldview, and ultimately, where he wants to take the country.