Who Else Is Surprised That They Want To See W?

[wwwes]

When it was first announced, I thought it sounded like it would be awful. Certainly Oliver Stone's other film about contemporary issues was pretty terrible. And I'm not a fan of political films in general. But the more I see clips, the more I think this could be one of the most surreal movie experiences ever. Like Dr. Strangelove in the way that farce and drama become pretty much indistinguishable from one another. Except that the real people involved make it like Saturday Night Live parody characters taking part in the real world.

In other words, it should be a spectacular flameout or a stunning success. It'd be hard to hit mediocre.

[Chris L]

Rob Corrdry as Ari Fleischer will merit a Netflixing, I guess. 

[njkaters]

Yes! Wow, this is a great post because I just came to the realization that I want to see W after talking badly about the very idea of this movie for awhile. Mostly, I want to see how Oliver Stone makes George W. Bush "weird" in some way. Bush is weird enough so I am not sure what he will do but I look forward to seeing it.

[theyellowchair]

my thoughts precisely. i'm hoping it plays like the cinematic equivalent of zinn's a people's history of the united states while on ecstacy while listening to loveless.

[Gilly]

Reviews are saying it's a comedy. If that's true I'll probably wait until DVD if it's just going to be a mockumentary.

[wwwes]

That's the unique part, though! Mockumentary implies false events. This is almost entirely based on reality, it's just done in such a way that it brings out the absurdity and insanity of it all.

[todd]

my thoughts precisely. i'm hoping it plays like the cinematic equivalent of zinn's a people's history of the united states while on ecstacy while listening to loveless.

are you jenny from AST

[erika]

Todd's on AST?

[Regular Joe]

my thoughts precisely. i'm hoping it plays like the cinematic equivalent of zinn's a people's history of the united states while on ecstacy while listening to loveless.

are you jenny from AST

It's all coming together now... Are you the Todd who runs the Dead Frog blog? If so, I like it a lot.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

That's the unique part, though! Mockumentary implies false events. This is almost entirely based on reality, it's just done in such a way that it brings out the absurdity and insanity of it all.

that's the beauty of the phrase, "based on a true story"- all it needs is a nanoshred of truth and you've based it on reality. 


N-E-T-F-L-I-X

[todd]

Todd's on AST?

this rabbit hole goes deeper than you could possibly imagine

[iAmBaronVonTito]

speaking of comedy communities, i havent been on blow up the moon in forever- what happened?!  once thriving, it's now a ghost town of spam.  

meanwhile, im considering getting back on the AST horse.  wish me luck...im not very funny.

[daveB from Oakland]

"Oliver Stone" & "Comedy" = ?

I might have to check it out.

[theyellowchair]

my thoughts precisely. i'm hoping it plays like the cinematic equivalent of zinn's a people's history of the united states while on ecstacy while listening to loveless.

are you jenny from AST

unfortunately i am not.

[ericluxury]

I saw it.
My thoughts:
I thought Josh Brolin was great and most of the pleasures of the film is that of watching how the impressions played out. Some were good, like Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright, and were not so hot, like Richard Dreyfuss and James Cromwell, who were too themselves to be convincingly someone so well known.
If you are curious to watch it just to see a disaster, you'd be better off not going. There was one disasterously bad scene (one of them being an attempt to re-create a CNN/Fox News type show that they titled 'Spin Ball') and very crowbarred-in Bushisms, but for the most part it was an okay movie. I didn't dislike it, but there are enough times where you just go 'whats the point of this movie'. It was very sympathetic to Colin Powell and somewhat sympathetic to George W. Bush, while being the opposite to Cheney, Rumsfield and others. It takes place entirely before 2004 which I found disappointing since pre-04 Bush made some sense where as post-04 Bush, it feels sometimes like he doesn't exist.