Mother. Socialite. Activist. Assassin. A gripping portrait of Sara Jane Moore, a single mother from suburban San Francisco who, in 1975, attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
More than a historical retelling, the documentary is an intimate character study — and a chilling mirror of America’s ideological divide. Framed around unprecedented access to Moore herself, it unfolds as a first-person monologue shot across the Bay Area sites where her radicalization took root. Blending rare archival footage with a stylized imagined exchange between Moore and her FBI handler, Suburban Fury traces her transformation from patriotic volunteer and government informant to disillusioned revolutionary with a gun in her hand.
Fifty years later, Moore’s story feels eerily prescient — a reflection of how ordinary citizens can be swept into extremism, conspiracy, and rage. Suburban Fury doesn’t offer easy answers; instead, it immerses us in one woman’s unraveling and the country that mirrored her fracture.
A must-see documentary. A chilling, essential look at a Bay Area would-be presidential assassin. Especially relevant today. -San Francisco Chronicle
Riveting. Bursting with energy of the archives and the thrill of a narrator who can’t quite be trusted. -Hollywood Reporter
Nothing short of riveting, excavating a strange, compelling story from the footnotes of history. -Vogue
Fascinating. Paints its subject as a microcosm for the country that produced her. -Indiewire
To the list of great documentaries rooted in interviews of a single person, such as Shirley Clarke’s ‘Portrait of Jason’ and Jean Eustache’s ’Numero Zero,’ add Robinson Devor’s ‘Suburban Fury’ -The New Yorker
NR, 120min
