Saw this last night at the Festival. It's a mainsteam-ish American movie about a tobacco industry lobbyist, told from his point of view as he does things like meet with firearms & alcohol lobbyists (who call themselves MOD - Merchants Of Death) to brag about death tolls in their respective industries, petition Hollywood to include more smoking in movies, and bribe a former Marlboro Man into not doing the talk show circuit about their lung cancer.
This genuinely hilarious black comedy is perfectly cast. Aaron Eckhart blends charm and smarm beautifully as our anti-hero Nick Naylor. William H. Macy is typically superb as the sandal-wearing anti-tobacco Senator. Good roles also go to the underrated Kim Dickens, Robert Duvall, Sam Elliott, an absolutely brilliant Rob Lowe, and even Katie Holmes. J.K. Simmons is fun as Naylor's boss, but I kept thinking of him as J. Jonah Jameson - his performance is identical to in the Spiderman movies.
The movie goes after pro- and anti-tobacco interest groups with equal venom. It makes no explicit moral judgement, but I can't see anyone thinking it actually promotes smoking. Some of the best scenes involve Nick's young son being excited at the possibility of growing up to be as big a scumbag as his dad: "Do I have flexible morals?" he asks at one point.
My favourite dialogue -
Son: Dad, why is the America government the best in the world?
Nick: Because of our endless appeals system.
Writer/director Jason Reitman is the son of Ivan Reitman (who produced David Cronenberg's early movies and directed things like Stripes and Ghostbusters). His dad should be proud.
Watch this if you loved Election.
Posted by pearce at July 31, 2006 12:35 PM