W

It is a well done biopic as these things go; but unlike JFK and Born on the Forth of July, Oliver Stone's latest film, "W" felt like one long running sub-par high school drama; politically correct, devoid of real grit and anger, and only selectively cherry-picking dialogue that nearly every semi-conscious American is already familiar with (even though the settings of several of the comments differed from reality). I have to admit I did enjoy the pleasure of seeing Condi Rice being portrayed as an over the top vacuous sycophant, which I've read isn't that "untrue," but I think she couldn't have been that bad, and that was sadly, some of the best comic relief.

Brolin's George Dubya was brilliant however, so well done, that, believe it or not, he came off as sympathetic. Bush haters are going to hate it, and Bush lovers (are there many left?) will probably come away relieved. Almost as if the last 8 long years were somehow, divinely out of his control, and that he was simply a victim of circumstance. To portray the presidency of George W. Bush as anything but epic calamity felt like farce, and giving it the Shakespearean tragic-filter was too much to take, and perhaps that was intentional and I just missed the joke.