All the President's Men

Genre: political drama

With: Dustin Hoffman (Carl Bernstein), Robert Redford (Bob Woodward), Jack Warden (Harry Rosenfeld), Jason Robards (Ben Bradlee), Martin Balsam (Howard Simons), Hal Holbrook (Deep Throat), Jane Alexander (the bookkeeper), Meredith Baxter (Debbie Sloan)

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Screenplay: William Goldman (from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward)

Release: 1976

Studio: Warner Bros. et al.

Rating: 14

MBiS score: 8.7/10

‟Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.”

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Story-line: Washington, 1972. When a break-in occurs at the Democratic National Committee office and its presumed perpetrators are arrested, two Washington Post reporters discover that this odd event is linked to a much larger scheme.

Pluses: a formidable pair of leads in Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, stellar support from Jason Robards and Jack Warden, a well-crafted and chilling screenplay that gets downright spooky when Woodward and Bernstein realize how dangerous their work has become, top-flight direction and irreproachable production values.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: if you're not familiar with the Watergate scandal, its particulars and key figures, this hefty and vital movie brilliantly covers that whole cover-up. Please note that the identity of Deep Throat, a crucial source, was known only in 2005! As a personal comment, what we are seeing now in Washington echoes those tumultuous times and, any way I look at it, I do worry for the American people.   

MBiS

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Junebug 

Genre: comedy drama

With: Embeth Davidtz (Madeleine), Alessandro Nivola (George Johnston, her husband), Frank Hoyt Taylor (David Wark), Ben McKenzie (Johnny, George’s brother), Amy Adams (Ashley, Johnny’s wife), Celia Weston (Peg, the mother), Scott Wilson (Eugene, the father)

Director: Phil Morrison

Screenplay: Angus MacLachlan

Release: 2005

Studio: Junebug Movie, Epoch Films

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.1/10

One Thing I Didn’t Know About Robert E. Lee

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Story-line: when Madeleine, who works for an art gallery in Chicago, hears of a little-known painter from North Carolina who produces groundbreaking oeuvres, she decides to pay him a visit. Her new husband, who told her about this Southern Picasso, tags along so he can introduce her to his family who also lives in the Tar Heel State.

Pluses: an evenly competent cast (I just loved Amy Adams as the fawning, earnest sister-in-law), several hilarious sight gags, skilled direction, unconventional cinematography, a screenplay that raises valid points about human psychology and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable issues.

Minuses: none… although the film may offend admirers of the General. 

Comments: JUNEBUG – even its title seems offbeat to me – is an outlier in American cinema, an original, funny and sometimes disturbing picture that doesn’t overwhelm but relies on its natural pacing and realistic story to hook you. Even when it seeks to oppose city and country folk, it does so with restraint, avoiding the obvious and the easy laugh. As a word of caution, don’t judge its characters too hastily – as I did, I confess! – because your opinion of them may change as the story rolls along. So here’s to JUNEBUG, a very likeable film that keeps things low-key and practices humanity.   

MBiS

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