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Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is an idealistic young media communications consultant, working for Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the presidential campaign of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney). The team is just days away from the Ohio Democratic Presidential primary election, and Morris is neck-and-neck in the polls with Senator Pullman, whose own campaign chairman Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), will do whatever it takes to win the election. Both campaigns are negotiating for the endorsement and the delegates of a third contender, but the price he is asking is high.
Then, Stephen gets distracted from the campaign by the romantic attentions of Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) an attractive young intern and, at the same time, Tom Duffy tries to convince him to come to work for Duffy on Pullman's campaign.And when Stephen discovers that Molly has a secret, that Duffy is playing dirty politics, that his boss Paul Zara no longer trusts him, and that political reporter Ida Horowicz (Marisa Tomei) would sell him out for a good story, Stephen finds himself caught in the middle. Now he has to decide what is most important, winning the election or preserving his integrity.
Written by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon from Willimon’s play Farragut North, and tautly directed by George Clooney, this is a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the deals, compromises and dirty politics that are all a part of presidential primary elections.
[Blogger's rating: **** out of 5 stars.]
Labels: drama, politics
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 67/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=74, viewers=72)
Blu-ray
Narrated by Matt Damon, Inside Job examines the causes and effects of the global financial meltdown of 2008. Through research and interviews with key players in the financial services industry, politicians, journalists and academics we gain an appreciation for how deregulation over the past thirty years has given rise to a small group of very large and very powerful investment banks and commercial banks, banks which have used their size, wealth and power to dominate their industry, and to influence elected officials, legislation and regulatory institutions.
These banks use excessive leverage to make very large and very risky, but highly profitable financial bets, with the full knowledge that they are regarded as being too big to fail, and so the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve System will bail them out again, in the likely event of future failure.
While this Academy Award winning documentary clearly shows how we got to this point, it's also a portent for the future, because, clearly, very little has changed.
Labels: crime, documentary, finance, Matt Damon, politics
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 88/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=82, viewers=84)
Blu-ray
In 1976 David Frost, a popular British talk-show host, conceived the idea of interviewing former President Richard Nixon. The videotaped interviews, which were later televised to wild acclaim, took place in 1977 in San Clemente, California, where Nixon lived virtually in exile following his 1974 impeachment, resignation and full pardon by President Gerald Ford.
Originally conceived by Frost as little more than entertainment, the interviews were ultimately appreciated as an opportunity to give Nixon the public trial that his presidential pardon had allowed him to avoid. The film features Peter Morgan's brilliant screenplay based on his own stage play, Ron Howard's sensitive, insightful direction, an Oscar-worthy performance by Frank Langella as Nixon, excellent performances by Michael Sheen as Frost, by Sam Rockwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Oliver Platt as Frost's advisors, and by Kevin Bacon as Nixon's advisor.
If you remember the late 1960s – the Vietnam War and the war protests – and the presidential election campaign of 1972 including the burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate hotel/office complex, then this reenactment of the Frost/Nixon television interviews will bring history alive for you once again. And watching Frank Langella's compelling performance as Richard Milhous Nixon is guaranteed to evoke the same emotional response in you that watching Nixon himself on television evoked during those turbulent years so long ago.
Labels: drama, history, politics
IMDb 77/100
MetaScore (critics=80, viewers=78)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=80, viewers=80)
Blu-ray
President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) is a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin. He's starting the last year of his first term in office, so he's basically running for reelection. He's a widower - his wife died of cancer during the campaign - and he has a twelve-year-old daughter. Both he and his Chief of Staff, A.J. MacInerney (Martin Sheen) fear that his narrow victory was the result of a sympathy vote, and that he will have an uphill struggle to get reelected.
Now Pres. Shepherd is trying to get a watered-down crime bill passed in Congress, while the environmental lobby wants him to support a tough bill calling for a twenty-percent reduction in greenhouse gases. The bill is championed by the Global Defense Council, and the GDC's chief Leo Solomon (John Mahoney) has hired a political operative by the name of Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), to lobby the White House. However, when Pres. Shepherd meets Sydney he falls for her, and they begin a passionate romance, which gives right-wing, family-values conservatives like Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) an election-year opportunity. As the President's public support erodes, he must acknowledge that his romance with Sydney is damaging him politically, while the political deals he must make to get his crime bill passed could destroy the romance.
The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing TV series, Charlie Wilson's War) and excellently directed by Rob Reiner. Douglas and Bening have great chemistry, and the supporting cast is outstanding, including Michael J. Fox, Anna Devere Smith, Samantha Mathis, David Paymer, Joshua Malina and Shawna Waldron. The film was nominated for five Golden Globes, and Marc Shaiman's musical score was nominated for an Oscar. If you enjoy politically-themed romantic comedy-dramas like Dave with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, or Speechless with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis, then you won't want to miss The American President.
Blogger's comment on October 31, 2017: Pres. Andrew Shepherd was a progressive liberal. Two of his major domestic issues were climate change and gun control. Since the film was released in 1995, U.S. population increased from 264 million to 326 million, atmospheric carbon dioxide from 365 ppm to 405 ppm and we've had over 700 thousand gun-related deaths. Progress? Really?
Labels: christmas, comedy, drama, politics, rom-com-faves, romance
Internet Movie Database 6.8/10
Metacritic 67/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=70, viewers=66)
Blu-ray
Julia Mann (Geena Davis) and Kevin Vallick (Michael Keaton) are insomniacs who are staying at the same hotel in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They meet while fighting over the last bottle of Nytol sleeping pills in the hotel gift shop, and their first date is an all-night drive south to the Mexican border for breakfast burritos. Kevin says he's a Hollywood sitcom writer, and Julia says she's a reporter, but they really are speechwriters for rival candidates in the race for a U.S. Senate seat.
While Kevin and Julia clearly are attracted to one another, they don't discover the truth about each other until they both appear as guests at a local school's Career Day. Both feel deceived by the other, and the not-so-subtle barbs they toss at one another threaten to end their blossoming romance. However, their attraction is so strong that they can't stay away from each other, and since campaign rules forbid their socializing, they have to keep their relationship secret. To make matters worse, Julia's ex-fiance, celebrity reporter Baghdad Bob Freed (Christopher Reeve) arrives with an engagement ring for Julia, and Kevin's boss Annette (Bonnie Bedelia), who is also his ex-wife, is growing jealous of Kevin's reporter friend.
Michael Keaton and Geena Davis have great timing together, both for physical comedy and for comedic dialog, and they also have great romantic chemistry. The soundtrack is outstanding and there's a happy ending. If you like light romantic comedy, with more comedy than romance - films like Forget Paris, Only You, and He Said, She Said - then you will really enjoy Speechless.
Labels: comedy, politics, rom-com-faves, romance, satire
IMDb 58/100
RottenTomatoes (critics=14, viewers=33)
Blu-ray
Dave Kovic is a good-hearted guy who runs a little employment agency. He finds work for people, mostly by getting his friend Murray Blum to hire them as temps in Murray's accounting office. Dave also happens to look exactly like the President of the United States; a decidedly evil character named Bill Mitchell. When Dave is recruited to double for the President at a public function, and the President has a stroke, Dave finds himself thrust into a role he first resists, and then embraces, with hilarious results.
Kevin Kline is wonderful both as Dave and as President Mitchell. Sigourney Weaver is terrific as the First Lady who recognizes in Dave what her husband had the potential to be. Frank Langella is superb as Bob Alexander, the malevolent Chief of Staff. And the supporting cast is outstanding, especially Charles Grodin as Dave's friend Murray Blum, Ving Rhames as Duane Stevenson, the Secret Service agent, Kevin Dunn as Alan Reed, White House Communications Director, and Ben Kingsley as Vice-President Nance. This is a funny, heart-warming movie with a love story and a happy ending. It's a film you will enjoy again and again.
Labels: comedy, politics, rom-com-faves, romance, satire
IMDb 69/100
RottenTomatoes (critics=95, viewers=72)
Blu-ray
MetaCritic (critics=76, viewers=67)
James Berardinelli's review (3 out of 4 stars)
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