Misunderestimated

W.

Crit

A very odd film--Stone apparently couldn't decide whether to lampoon the president or to humanize him, so what he ultimately created was a two-hour Saturday Night Live sketch w/ only intermittent humor and a Greatest Hits revue of 43's most famous malapropisms and mannerisms. Some performances--Josh Brolin as Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as "Vice"--are scarily spot-on, while two of the three most important women in his life are grotesque caricatures: Ellen Burstyn seems less like the second woman to marry a president and give birth to one than like a professional wrestler, while Thandie Newton, unrecognizable (and unnaturally unsexy) as Condoleezza Rice, is a simpering, schoolgirl-crushy embarrassment; if the real Condi were anything like this, she'd have ended up as secretary and mistress to some investment banker, not as the most powerful woman in the country.
The most interesting element of the film is the Oedipal speculation: with a ballbusting father (James Cromwell--and what a career he has had since his breakthrough at age 55 as the owner of a talking pig) who constantly compares him unfavorably with his younger brother Jeb, W seemingly has no choice but to become president.

Trailers

• The International--With the recent landmark Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that makes gay marriage legal in my state, Jennie Tonic has suggested that I can now begin to refer to, for example, My Future Husband Clive Owen. Well, we'll see--but we probably won't see this apparently formulaic action/suspenser.
• The Spirit--Looks goofy, which is not to say it doesn't look possible.
• No more Morning Light trailers, 'cause it opened!