Good looking, ambitious young politico sleeps and blackmails his way onto a Conservative presidential campaign and quickly reaps the whirlwind.
This ultra-low-budget (it looks like it was shot with a camcorder), pseudo-sophisticated wanna-be thriller wears its politics on its sleeve. Once again, the Right is inherently evil. At one point a black character - a wealthy, hip hop impresario - tells a man of the Right that even if many blacks do share his Conservative values, "We still just n*****s to you." And the right-wing guy agrees with him! (He does everything but twirl a mustache)
Another character - moderately selfish, yes, but compared with the others, a voice of reason - - has an extended riff about how the United Party (a stand-in for the GOP) is a bunch of "fascists" in favor of "selling guns to 7-year-olds and laughing while the cops shoot people in the street."
Swell.
Now, are there unsympathetic Progressives in this movie? Sure. A few. But their POLITICS are never questioned.
But of course, no professional critic so far has mentioned this. Why? Because critics are Progressive themselves (most of them), and fish don't know they're wet. In their minds, it's simply a GIVEN that the Right is evil - duh! - so portraying them as such is simply hewing to reality, and hardly worth the mention. But I'll lay odds that if the LEFT was being portrayed this way, they'd definitely be writing about it. And deducting points accordingly.
So I'll deduct points myself for the shameless bias ... as well as the threadbare production values, the incredibly lame plotting (a clandestine meeting in an underground parking structure? Are you kidding me??), the sometimes-good/often-mediocre dialogue, and the utter lack of suspense.
Credit where it's due, though: It's refreshing to see a woman over 60 (Mimi Rogers) playing a sexually vital character, and the young lead (David Corenswet) gives a good performance.
C-
This ultra-low-budget (it looks like it was shot with a camcorder), pseudo-sophisticated wanna-be thriller wears its politics on its sleeve. Once again, the Right is inherently evil. At one point a black character - a wealthy, hip hop impresario - tells a man of the Right that even if many blacks do share his Conservative values, "We still just n*****s to you." And the right-wing guy agrees with him! (He does everything but twirl a mustache)
Another character - moderately selfish, yes, but compared with the others, a voice of reason - - has an extended riff about how the United Party (a stand-in for the GOP) is a bunch of "fascists" in favor of "selling guns to 7-year-olds and laughing while the cops shoot people in the street."
Swell.
Now, are there unsympathetic Progressives in this movie? Sure. A few. But their POLITICS are never questioned.
But of course, no professional critic so far has mentioned this. Why? Because critics are Progressive themselves (most of them), and fish don't know they're wet. In their minds, it's simply a GIVEN that the Right is evil - duh! - so portraying them as such is simply hewing to reality, and hardly worth the mention. But I'll lay odds that if the LEFT was being portrayed this way, they'd definitely be writing about it. And deducting points accordingly.
So I'll deduct points myself for the shameless bias ... as well as the threadbare production values, the incredibly lame plotting (a clandestine meeting in an underground parking structure? Are you kidding me??), the sometimes-good/often-mediocre dialogue, and the utter lack of suspense.
Credit where it's due, though: It's refreshing to see a woman over 60 (Mimi Rogers) playing a sexually vital character, and the young lead (David Corenswet) gives a good performance.
C-