Delayed Reaction: Bulworth

The Pitch: A California Senator decides to start being honest in the last days of his re-election campaign.

The timeline of when I put these Reactions out is always lagging behind. For some context, I saw this a couple days after the election. It seemed fitting for such a protracted and high-emotion campaign. In a lot of ways, Bulworth is the Democratic version of Trump. He speaks with no filter and many people love him more for it. So, this felt like a good way to transition out of all the talk of the election.

Someone is going to have to explain Warren Beatty to me. I don't get it. He's treated like Hollywood royalty and I'm not sure why. Specifically, him as a director*. He hasn't done many films, but those he has directed sure are loved. Reds is ambitious but too long for not enough pay off. Dick Tracy is visually interesting, I suppose. Rules Don't Apply was a dud (although I'm not hearing universal praise for that one). I haven't seen Heaven Can Wait. Now I've seen Bulworth. And...I don't get it.

*I don't fully understand his appeal as an actor either, but I kind of get it, at least. I'm intrigued by the actors like him who only work occasionally and pick their roles carefully.

Bulworth is a thoroughly 90s comedy. It's from the same period that gave us Nothing to Lose and High School High. The Bulworth principal of comedy is "it sure is funny to watch white people act black", which, I'd say doesn't age well, but I'm not convinced I would've found it all that funny in 1998 either.

It's striking how familiar the political talk was. The things Bulworth says about big business, health care, and corrupt politicians are virtually the same as what we hear now. I find that oddly comforting. That was 20 years ago and not that much has changed. Sure, that means a lot of things aren't great, but it also means that change, for better or worse, is slow. No single politician is bigger than the system...Ok, I think I just found a way to idealize my lack of idealism. Is that a thing?

So yeah, I wasn't very impressed by this. This doesn't look like a movie that was directed by a former Oscar winner (for Directing). I see the screenplay for Bulworth was actually nominated for an Oscar. I'm not sure if that's a matter of the Oscars being political or Oscar voters loving Warren Beatty something fierce, but it wouldn't've received my vote. Clearly, I have bigger issues with Warren Beatty  that I should figure out, bigger than this film. Bulworth is fine. Beatty is having fun playing the character. Halle Berry is good in it. I could've used more Christine Baranski, but when isn't that true? I really do like the idea for the movie. I just don't prefer the execution of it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend