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    Wag the Dog

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    "Wag the Dog" generates a lot of laughs in two ways: first by being a genuinely funny dark comedy and secondly by playing with your brain and making you so afraid that what is going on in the story is true that you can't help but laugh. As long as there are politics and news, this 1997 Barry Levinson picture will have bite.

    The premise is that two weeks before the U. S. elections, the President is caught in a sex scandal pretty much guaranteeing that he ha no chance of being re-elected. How do you distract the public from the real issue? Get expert spin-doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) to hire a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman as Stanley Motss) and stage a fake war that will be on every front page.

    The script is incredibly sharp and expertly acted. Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro play off each other like carefully choreographed fencers. You keep going back and forth trying to figure out which of the two is your favourite because they’re both so good at being bad. The supporting characters are also very effective, with Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson playing small but memorable roles. I also enjoyed Anne Heche as an actual human being. She’s like the audience: along for the ride and panicking at the slightest sign of a possible derailment. When it comes to the story, it's so ridiculous it feels completely genuine and it's so plausible it can only be a fantasy. This political satire about a crew that is hired to orchestrate a phoney war in order to distract the world from the American president's latest blunder is 100% on the mark.

    When you hear the premise of the movie and you see the introduction you're thinking to yourself "ok, I see what they're doing here, they're showing an exaggerated version of how gullible people can be, this is going to be a lot of fun!" As the movie progresses, you find yourself listening to Brean (De Niro) attentively. The more he explains how they're going to get away with it and make the whole thing convincing the more you are convinced. Not only are the events in the film going to play out very differently from what you thought yourself, but it all feels like a thinly disguised classified report that's been leaked or (more disturbing) purposely put out there by shady government ops in an attempt to make the story into a fictional tale and therefore "totally implausible in real life". This second train of thought it was makes the movie unforgettable, you watch the fake war half hoping that the characters won't succeed and half hoping that they will. It's as if the movie is an inside look on a real-life event; if they fail in the film then there's no way that anyone could get away with it in real life but if they succeed, well then you'll have to question every piece of news that you ever stumble across.

    This is one of those movies that is too smart for just one sitting. You have to watch multiple times if you ever want to genuinely appreciate everything that's going on. The dialogue is so sharp and the story is so immersive that you'll likely only be able to focus on one of the elements at a time. You won't even notice a lot of the subtle touches in the film. If you have a friend that's somewhat of a conspiracy theorist and you show them "Wag the Dog" you will be able to see their brain collapse out of a mix of terror and frustration. If you’re feeling less cruel just watch it with friends and you will have a ton of fun discussing it.

    There's a lot of re-watch value to “Wag the Dog”. In a world where newspapers are disappearing and people find themselves scouring the Internet for information, it takes on a whole new light."Wag the Dog" is simultaneously hilarious, intelligent and frightening. If a movie about political conspiracy sounds unappealing to you, I don’t know what to say. Go back to burying your head in the sand? I’d even call this an important picture because of the story but the fun doesn’t stop there. It’s fabulous. Check it out with some friends and see what everyone takes out of it. (On VHS, March 1, 2013)

    10
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    adamwatchesmovies@  21.11.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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