Rainbow coalition

No

Crit

Whether it's a fictionalized riff, as here, or pretty much straight fact, any story where the audience already knows the ending (spoiler alert: No wins, Pinochet is ousted) has to find a way to introduce some suspense by making us (etymological echo intended) suspend our foreknowledge. My favorite film of this form does so by turning history and journalism into a noirish detective story, complete with a sense of physical threat, not to mention to fate of the First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. It does it so well that every time I watch it--and I'm probably close to double digits by now--I sweat every dead-end lead and unexpected pair of headlights at a Deep Throat meeting.

No tries very hard to be All the Dictator's Men, and in surer hands it might have been. But its strong suit--not to mention the soul of its timeliness--is the ethical issue of campaigning sincerity vs. campaign pragmatism, of selling the right thing for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, that gets tossed to the side midway through. It's a pretty good film that coulda been a contender.

Trailers

• The Sapphires--OK, it's probably just the music, but I found this surprisingly appealing.
• The East--Anticorporate terrorists? Hell yeah! And that was before I noticed that the brilliant and beautiful Brit Marlingcowrote and stars.