I think the key to political spin doctors (and faith healers and televangelists) is that they actually have to believe their own spin. Or better yet, make their own movies about themselves.
It seems the first con of a confidence man, is to convince himself. And this film seems very self-assured; it feels like it spends a lot of time smiling in the mirror. That mirror may well be a fun-house one, full of distortions.
But hey Hollywood made a movie with three conservatives as the dashing heroes, so that's a bit of a story in itself. This movie is almost 20 years old (and the story older) but it was delivered to my house in a small red envelope, so perhaps this is more Putin tampering with the American system even as he stoops towards an unthinkable world war.
The film is simultaneously simple and clever. A question : does Jeff Goldblum every play a character besides Jeff Goldblum, perhaps a scosh more unctuous here than usual.
Like Erika Lee's book "America for Americans" here I see pollsters as horrible villains, even when they "win." How much the three stooge/savants here had to do with the actual election in 1996 (and how much of it was in fact an election) all remains pretty unclear to me.
I wish I could like the film as much as it did itself, as fantasy it could have been a lot more fun, as a "true story" it feels heavily suspect. Apparently it leaves out plenty including Goldblum's Gorton characters biological son who might have served as the anchor baby while the other staffers were free to come and go from the hotel and the country.
Oh well, in this "we" make the world safe for McDonalds, billboards and above all pitchmen and their over-simplified polls.
It seems the first con of a confidence man, is to convince himself. And this film seems very self-assured; it feels like it spends a lot of time smiling in the mirror. That mirror may well be a fun-house one, full of distortions.
But hey Hollywood made a movie with three conservatives as the dashing heroes, so that's a bit of a story in itself. This movie is almost 20 years old (and the story older) but it was delivered to my house in a small red envelope, so perhaps this is more Putin tampering with the American system even as he stoops towards an unthinkable world war.
The film is simultaneously simple and clever. A question : does Jeff Goldblum every play a character besides Jeff Goldblum, perhaps a scosh more unctuous here than usual.
Like Erika Lee's book "America for Americans" here I see pollsters as horrible villains, even when they "win." How much the three stooge/savants here had to do with the actual election in 1996 (and how much of it was in fact an election) all remains pretty unclear to me.
I wish I could like the film as much as it did itself, as fantasy it could have been a lot more fun, as a "true story" it feels heavily suspect. Apparently it leaves out plenty including Goldblum's Gorton characters biological son who might have served as the anchor baby while the other staffers were free to come and go from the hotel and the country.
Oh well, in this "we" make the world safe for McDonalds, billboards and above all pitchmen and their over-simplified polls.