Readers, I am thankful for so many things this year as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and begin to look toward Christmas, but one of the top things is a healthy sense of humor about the trials that life inevitably throws our way. It's as inevitable as change in our lives, something I've mentioned recently in these pages.
Few topics offer more to laugh about so that one does not cry than the ecosystem of politics. God created satire for this reason (at least I like to think so).
By way of confirming this truism, in a recent interview with the Inside Comedy podcast, Saturday Night Live legend and actor, Dan Ackroyd, said that growing up, his hometown, Ottawa, Canada, was prime real estate for humor:
Ottawa was a very rich environment culturally...There was an active interest in comedy and, God knows, you have to have a lot to laugh at in Ottawa, you know, with the government pompousness and pomposity, and just living in a government town.
READ MORE: This Thanksgiving Will Be One of the Most Important I've Ever Had
Caregiver's Diary Part 60: Immeasurably Thankful
One of my favorite ways to enjoy satirical ponderings is on the motion pictures on the silver screen. Let's dive right in:
1. Bulworth (1998) - Warren Beatty wrote the screenplay, directed, and starred in this wacky escapade of a movie featuring an incumbent California U.S. senator looking for a way out of politics—even if it means putting his own life in danger. The movie co-stars an agile and hilarious Halle Berry, who just three years later would garner her Lead Actress Academy Award for Monster's Ball (2001).
2. Protocol (1984) - The great comedic actress Goldie Hawn makes this screwball comedy shine. She plays a Washington, D.C., cocktail waitress who accidentally finds herself drafted as part of the U.S. diplomatic corps in the Middle East. It's been many years since I've watched the film, but I recall it is not anywhere close to politically correct, as we used to call it at the time. Silly popcorn hilarity (and a few risqué jokes) abound!
3. Dave (1993) - This film would not work at all without the charms of lead actor, Academy Award winner Kevin Kline, who was that era's answer to an earlier one's, in Jimmy Stewart. He can play the everyman with ease. Here, his character "Dave Kovic," who has a side gig impersonating the President of the United States at store openings and the like, while running an employment agency, finds himself lassoed into a bizarre coup plot by nefarious politicos when the sitting POTUS falls into a coma. Sigourney Weaver's take as the first lady is just right, as is the late, great Charles Grodin as Dave's accountant friend. Along for the fantastic fun are Ving Rhames as a very serious Secret Service agent; Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley as the dutiful vice president; plus an great early role for Laura Linney as a Monica Lewisky-esque White House staffer. Watch for cameos by the McLaughlin Group, Reagan era House Speaker Tip O'Neill... and even director Oliver Stone. Probably one of my fave movies of all time.
4. Team America: World Police (2004) - What can you really say about this one? If you're familiar with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, you know they've never been afraid to skewer everyone on the political spectrum or in Hollywood. It's the same story here, in a spoof of action/war movies, and centered on U.S. operations in the Middle East. Matt Damon! (If you know, you know.) Anyway, you can watch the trailer here, if you're so inclined (the movie is very much rated "R.")
READ: I Think It's Time for South Park to End - Sincerely, a South Park Fan
TV Data Guy Has Trends, Cracks Doggone Funny Joke on Popular Vote on Thanksgiving National Dog Show
5. Bananas (1971) -
The late Diane Keaton co-stars here with Woody Allen, whose NYC-based character gets mixed up with a guerrilla faction during a revolution in a South American dictatorship. I guarantee you won't find another madcap comedy of the era with a cameos by both famed sports announcer, Howard Cosell and the then-reigning Miss America. Goofy fun!
Warning: the trailer contains violence scenes
6. Primary Colors (1998) - It's not very veiled that this is a satirical look at Bill (and Hillary) Clinton, played by John Travolta and Emma Thompson, respectively. Billy Bob Thornton is also fantastic here as the stand-in for James Carville, along with Kathy Bates as a campaign fixer..
Publishing house Penguin Random House described their offering of the same name, a rich trove of material about the Clinton years that was originally published with the author (political commentator Joe Klein) listed as Anonymous:
When a former congressional aide becomes part of the staff of the governor of a small Southern state, he watches in horror, admiration, and amazement, as the governor mixes calculation and sincerity in his not-so-above-board campaign for the presidency.
The trailer of Mike Nichols' film, below, probably gives you a better sense of how he went about managing the Elaine May-penned script:
7. Wag the Dog (1997) dovetails well with the following year's Primary Colors. The lead-in movie simply was not as successful. That said, they are cut from the same cloth. We find more scheming advisers, less than virtuous politicians, and scummy Hollywood producers, and the screenplay ably skewers them all here. Dustin Hoffman is stellar in his turn as the producer, along with Robert DeNiro as the presidential adviser who needs Hoffman's character to concoct a distraction from his candidate's sex scandal.
And here are four bonus movies:
I have not seen the following films, so resisted the urge to list them willy-nilly for reputational purposes. They made at least a small splash when they were released, so I reckon I'll include them here:
A. The Interview (2014) - This one made the most waves, earning the people involved in it death threats from none other than Kim Jong Un, the petite authoritarian leader of North Korea. Who knew that poking fun at dictators was verboten?
B. The Dictator (2012): Here's a comedy about a made-up dictator, played by Borat originator, British comedian-actor Sacha Baron Cohen. As Cohen is something of an acquired taste (and he's been a bigtime anti-Trump voice in recent years, so there's that.)
C. Canadian Bacon (1995): I know, I know. Shame on me for not having seen this classic John Candy flick. The basics that I have picked up: There's a not-exactly-real war that the United States declares on our neighbors to the North. Did I mention John Candy's in it?
D. To Be or Not to Be (1942) stars Carole Lombard and Jack Benny as theater troupe performers, who fall into helping a Polish soldier Robert Stack) catch a German spy. It's a particular fave of one of my friends, so I've included it here.
Those are my movie picks. Which ones do you love, readers? And once again, happy Thanksgiving!
