W. (2008)

The movie trailer led me to expect a pot-shotting parody, but in fact, W. is a serious, sad, scary and damned entertaining (if necessarily simplified) look at George W. Bush the son, the man and the president, and obviously the product of exhaustive research. Josh Brolin is Oscar-worthy as the Dubya we may at least think we know, acting the role rather than merely impersonating his way through it. The same is true for the other actors, including Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney, James Cromwell as Bush Sr., Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, Toby Jones as Rove, and Scott Glenn as Rumsfield. Only Thandie Newton as Condie comes off as a caricature. Her facial and body "business" is silly and distracting. I watched the film twice in a row, the second time with Director Oliver Stone's engaging and literate commentary turned on. He concludes it by saying, "To me, W. feels like Bush. It may not be Bush, but it feels like him." I totally agree. Whatever your take on Bush, don’t miss this brilliantly written, directed, acted, photographed and edited film. Then re-watch it with Stone’s commentary!