I love, Love, LOVE ‘inside baseball’ politics films.
It’s not a super-hot genre to begin with so the sample size of potential films to crow about is pretty weeny.
(THE CANDIDATE has been my go-to film for about ten years now when I need an example of what a movie about politics is really all about. But THE CANDIDATE is 40 years old and a wee bit dated, so we should probably give it a rest and search for a more contemporary entry.)
IDES perfectly captures the changing nature of modern politics, creating an incredible amount of suspense and tension from absolutely nothing. In this image oriented world of spin-doctoring it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, what matters is how other people leverage the knowledge of your actions to further their own agendas.
It’s the bizarre and labyrinthian interpersonal dynamics of who knows what (and when they knew it) that carries the work load of this film
You do have to mentally get over the fact that two people with a hell of a lot of political smarts can’t muster up enough brain power to overcome the needs of their throbbing genitals, but sex and politics seemingly go hand and in hand so it’s not too hard to give that little whoopsy a pass when you’re looking for nits to pick.
Too often writers and directors try to jazz up films about politics by unnecessarily ramping up the tension and turning it into a no holds barred thriller. IDES proves that people being people is rich enough source material for any film to hang its hat on.
Have you seen THE CONTENDER? Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, and Gary Oldman. Also very good.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen THE CONTENDER in over ten years, but I remember liking it so much I bought it. (Back when I still bought DVDs)
ReplyDeleteIt meandered a bit at times, but it finshed strong.