Better Than Ambien

Boring.

Incredibly, utterly, boring. 

The guy in front of me was asleep after an hour.  There were three other people in his group, two of which were also asleep after an hour.  The guy to my right, nodded off after an hour.  The guy to my left, nodded off after an hour and a half.  Me?  I was almost out at an hour, but had to force myself to stay awake to see it through.  The rest of the audience?  Mostly asleep as well…

And I saw a 4pm showing, if that tells you anything.

The film is about the coming-into-office Bush, and basically starts with him impressing a bunch of fraternity brothers and then we see him getting out of college, and going on to become the president who ruined the country.  The problem is that we already know the story.  And the stuff we didn’t know, the stuff that would have been much more interesting, was only glossed over in five minute intervals.  There’s no achievement filmmaking here.  Oliver Stone has accomplished nothing, at all, except to merely tell the tale we already know. 

Was it a comedy?  I have no idea.  I didn’t laugh, and the stuff people were chuckling at frightened me.  Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) is, honestly, made out to be a Sith Lord.  His depiction in the film is as if he controls Bush, but Bush knows it and doesn’t like it.  Colin Powell is made out to be a military genius/saint who is the ‘all-knowing’ standout for actually wanting to invade Iraq.  Rumsfeld is made out to be a mentally handicapped Sith Lord.  And Condoleezza Rice is depicted as a biblical, fearsome witch with fangs.  And these are not exaggerations.  In fact, the only person who comes out clean in this is W. himself.  Which is so very, very odd.  The entire film seems to suggest that Bush is nothing more than a puppet, taking advice and making decisions through his lackeys, and worse, that they’re the ones to blame.  For everything.

It’s so surreal.  I’m not a political person, by any stretch of the imagination, however, I just can’t get over how our president ends up being depicted as the person who essentially had nothing to do with ruining out country.  It’s as if Oliver Stone makes him out to be a total idiot, who made none of his own decisions, and was only interested in getting the approval of his father.  Okay, even if that’s the case, does that really warrant making a movie about it?  And if so, what in the world is supposed to be entertaining about watching it unfold?

Sadly, all the actors did a tremendous job, especially both Josh Brolin as W., and Dreyfuss.  I was expecting Dreyfuss to eat a puppy any time he occupied the screen.  And Brolin’s impression is so dead on that it’s creepy.  There’s only one scene I could think of where he comes out of character; the rest of the time he is Bush.  One hundred percent.

It’s hard to say that the directing was good, when the movie was so boring, but it really was solid.  There were great, somewhat confusing, transitions between the past and present, each giving an interesting look at the history of Bush.  The film was perfectly grainy at times and the shadowing/lighting effects were very enthralling.  But, again, what’s the point in saying these things were any good, when nothing of the story is enough to intrigue you to actually pay attention?

I was twenty years old when Bush was elected to office and as such, the eight years of his reign have essentially been the years I spent becoming a man.  It’s sad to think that I will probably remember these past eight years more than any to come, and it’s even sadder that a movie was made that glosses over them.  These years have been the most atrocious in American history, and creating a film which details the events is honestly just a bore.  We had to live them.  And I’m sure that many of us wish we didn’t.  Why would we want to relive them?

That being said, I won’t be surprised to see Brolin up for an Oscar nomination.  I can’t think of too many other performances this year that were quite as transforming as this.