At a loss for things to do after voting at City Hall, I decided to watch Borat at one of the downtown cinemas. With the later viewing of Death of a President at the other downtown cinema, it turned into a day of watching two political films, Reviews below the fold.
Borat:
You've probably heard a lot about this one already. I won't go too much into the outrageously funny low comedy aspects of the film.
Much more interesting is the biting satire and hit on the pretensious of our society. Particularly telling is that the nicest and least condescending people in the entire film were the very sorts that would be most completely avoided by the "pillars" of American society. If I were a theologian (career idea perhaps...), I would go into greater length about the relative reaction of the highest and the meekest to the guy with the "foreign" habits. (Least among you, that sort of thing)
Death of a President:
Chilling, extremely realistic. I can see why it ran with honors at the Toronto Film Festival. It looks so real that the disclaimer at the beginning may not be enough for the sheer level of realism.
However, I would take issue with the scenario modeled. The writers of this film do not realize how close to hard authoritarian America really is right now. The issue of increased fascism is only dealt with in the form of a nod to a conjectural "Patriot act III", some mention of racial profiling / Extraordinary Rendition, and the briefest of attempts to beat the drum of war on the RWNM against Syria.
Really, this film could have gone much further with those issues, but overall a good story and great acting.
If anyone wants to give more feedback on these or recommend some others to watch, comment away.