A legal “fixer” who works behind the scenes of a powerful New York law firm stumbles into a corporate conspiracy in Tony Gilroy’s smart, sharp legal drama.
Category: Politics
The original British ‘House of Cards Trilogy’ on Amazon Prime, BritBox, and Hoopla
Ian Richardson stars in the original BBC miniseries about the most seductively ruthless politician you’ve ever had the pleasure to watch claw his way to the top (over the corpses of his rivals).
‘Thank You For Smoking’ on Amazon Prime
Aaron Eckhart is the glib, proudly obfuscating tobacco lobbyist in Jason Reitman’s wickedly witty adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s novel. He’s also our hero.
Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden’ on Amazon Prime
The director of ‘Oldboy’ delivers a sexy, savage, utterly compelling con thriller tangled up in national and sexual politics in 1930s Korea.
‘Our Brand Is Crisis’ – politics as PR on Netflix
Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton star as American political consultants running rival political campaigns in Bolivia in this satire inspired by real events.
‘1984’ seen from 1984 on Amazon Prime
John Hurt and Richard Burton star in Michael Radford’s impressive film adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic, which has the distinction of being made and released in 1984.
‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ on Amazon Prime
Luis Buñuel’s sly, dry, deadpan masterpiece of upper class hypocrisy uses satire to skewer social pretensions and moral hypocrisy
‘Best of Enemies’ – Buckley vs. Vidal on Amazon Prime
Best of Enemies (2015) carries the subtitle “Buckley vs. Vidal” and it is indeed a portrait of a rivalry, one that was presented on prime time network television at a time when there were three networks and TV news strived to be fair and balanced to a fault. In 1968, William F. Buckley was the […]
‘Dr. Strangelove’ – the screwball satire of mutually assured destruction on HBO Max
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Stanley Kubrick’s screwball satire of cold war posturing and mutually assured destruction, is the funniest film ever made about nuclear holocaust. But it didn’t begin as a comedy. The source novel, Peter George’s Red Alert, was a grave contemplation of the […]
Last chance: Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandella in ‘Invictus’ on Netflix
Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandella as the newly-elected President of South Africa in Invictus (2009), Clint Eastwood’s reverent tribute to Nelson Mandella’s efforts to unite post-apartheid South Africa. This isn’t a biography of Mandella. Audiences come to the film with the understanding that Nelson Mandella spent 24 years in prison for protesting South Africa’s apartheid […]