"Bulworth" is another high-profile political satire that came out in 1998 that should have been on fire due to its pedigree and instead comes off as rather limp.
Warren Beatty plays an end-of-his-rope politician who goes a little off his rocker and begins to speak the truth to the people, often by rapping it to them hip-hop fashion. The joke is that the people love it, responding warmly to a politician who's willing to cut through the bullsh*t and tell it like it is.
The film is creative and has an interesting conceit, but it just doesn't work in that vague way that films sometimes don't and that's hard to put a finger on. Beatty's pretty good, but the whole film feels like it's trying too hard to be an art-house classic, and the tone doesn't fit the personalities of the artists associated with it.
Grade: B-
Warren Beatty plays an end-of-his-rope politician who goes a little off his rocker and begins to speak the truth to the people, often by rapping it to them hip-hop fashion. The joke is that the people love it, responding warmly to a politician who's willing to cut through the bullsh*t and tell it like it is.
The film is creative and has an interesting conceit, but it just doesn't work in that vague way that films sometimes don't and that's hard to put a finger on. Beatty's pretty good, but the whole film feels like it's trying too hard to be an art-house classic, and the tone doesn't fit the personalities of the artists associated with it.
Grade: B-