New York Magazine (Vulture) by
This entertaining but rather peculiar movie asks extraordinary questions, and I wish it were better equipped to give the answers.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, France, Germany · 1998
Rated R · 2h 23m
Director Mike Nichols
Starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates
Genre Drama
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Loosely based on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential run, the film follows Henry Burton, who is tasked with overseeing the campaign of Jack Stanton, a smooth talking politician with a wandering eye. If Jack wants the White House, he'll need help burying his scandals --- and that's where Henry comes in.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by
This entertaining but rather peculiar movie asks extraordinary questions, and I wish it were better equipped to give the answers.
A slack, tepid picture stuck in a no man's land between satire and drama.
I expected to laugh; I didn't expect to be moved.
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Guilty, deftly orchestrated fun.
The New York Times by Elvis Mitchell
It's a movie struggling with its own identity crisis, and with the obvious constraints created by its subject matter.
It's as wise and funny and revealing as anything ever created by Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
An intelligent and very funny satire about the bloody game of American politics.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
An intelligent movie that portrays the mighty without reverence.
The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann
The result is glib, often funny, sometimes bumpy, and ultimately depressing.
Washington Post by Stephen Hunter
Its palette isn't primary at all: It's full of secondary shadings.
Go behind the lies.
In Havana, music isn't a pastime, it's a way of life.