In the glitz and glamour of Hollywood cinema, it’s easy to overlook the generally less sexy of Academy Award categories, including that of Documentary Feature. It’s a sad, ironic truth that such films - often low budget and rough around the edges - are perhaps more capable of pulling at one’s emotions than any over-produced, multi-million dollar Los Angeles love-fest ever will.

Such is true of “No End in Sight,” nominated for Best Documentary at Sunday’s Academy Awards, and easily the most gut-wrenching, emotionally poignant film I’ve seen in at least a year. The documentary, which details the United States’ infinite recklessness and political ineptitude in executing the Iraq war, delivers a tragedy so tremendous, so provocative, and so thoroughly infuriating it seems only possible in this look-one-way-before-you-cross type of world we live in today.

Backed by the first-hand accounts of key members of the administration, military, and diplomatic corps, “No End in Sight” is staggering in its testimony, offering witness to the planning and execution of a multi-billion dollar war in a completely foreign country by leaders with little to no experience in military or developmental affairs. This film will at once infuritate you, frighten you, and tear at your heart.

If you seek a sweeping argument against the war, see this film.

If you have had enough with such arguments, let this film change your mind.

Rating: 5/5