Our Brand Is Crisis

My favorite genre has got to be comedies, but when finding a well scripted comedy is difficult to find, and of recent years it has been problematic, a juicy satirical comedy definitely fits the bill. Since satirical comedies are my favorite format of this genre, by far, then going to see "Our Brand Is Crisis" seemed like the natural move.

This satirical comedy starring Sandra Bullock as a political strategist gives viewers an inside look at the high-stakes, win-at-all-costs world of politics. Bullock stars as "Calamity" Jane Bodine, who is hired to work on the campaign of a Bolivian presidential candidate, Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) who has fallen way behind in the polls. She faces off against her rival of many times over, political strategist Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), who is working on the opponents campaign and is looking for every opportunity to antagonize Jane. So, between Jane and her crew including Ben (Anthony Mackie), Nell (Ann Dowd) and Buckley (Scoot McNairy), they must attempt to keep one step ahead of Pat in order for Jane's guy to not only win the election, but so she can finally beat Pat at his own game.

Others to round out the cast are Zoe Kazan as LeBlanc, Dominic Flores as Hugo, Reynaldo Pacheco as Eddie, Louis Arcella as Rivera, the other candidate, Octavio Gomez Berrios as Pepe and Luiz Chavez as Abraham.

This was directed by David Gordon Green ("George Washington" 2000, "All the Real Girls" '03, "Undertow" '04, "Snow Angels" '07, "Pineapple Express" '08, "Your Highness" '11, "The Sitter" '11, "Black Jack" '11 (TV movie), "Prince Avalanche" '13, "Joe" '13, "Manglehorn" '14)
and just by his resume, one can tell that this guy mostly has helmed more of the crass, fart joke types of films. This apparently all changed when he decided to direct this film, because this, being satirical, is better staged and paced than most of his other projects. This was even better written by Peter Straughan who is quite the prolific writer. This guy is a seasoned, veteran consummate writer to beat none. The character development of the two leading stars (Bullock and Thornton) was drippingly satiric--practically acerbic, which makes this even better since it's about the sleaziness of the political machine. When the comedy is a satire, politics make for great fodder, and considering we're in the middle of our election coming up only next year, this makes that all the more timely. Certainly both Bullock and especially Thornton are superb at satirical roles, so the casting of this was spot on.

If you're like me and really get into satirical comedy, you'll revel, however if you're not, the face off between Bullock and Thornton being so smarmy will be alone worth the price of admission.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                              Rated: R                                 108mins.