Man of the Year

Man of the Year
Length: Single
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Website: http://www.manoftheyearmovie.net/
Release Date: 2006-10-13
Cast: Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Lewis Black
Director: Barry Levinson
Screenwriter: Barry Levinson
Music Score: Graeme Revell, Allan Mason
WorkNameSort: Man of the Year
Our Rating: 3.00
There are websites where you can purchase 'Stewart/Colbert '08â?� campaign swag, and Man of the Year, about the host of a fake-news comedy show who runs for and is elected president, captures this potential youth zeitgeist of funnymen-turned-politicos. But what starts off as a jaded hipster's wish-fulfillment fantasy gradually evolves into a preachy Orwellian nightmare about nefarious corporate goons (led by a miscast Jeff Goldblum) silencing a whistle-blower (Laura Linney). The company in question is Delacroy (obviously standing in for Diebold), manufacturers of a computer voting system whose glitch enables comedian Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) to be elected president. This is really two movies in one ' an exemplary political satire and an average thriller, tied together with romantically shopworn president-as-an-average-Joe tropes from Dave and The American President. Barry Levinson, who filmed satire more savagely in Wag the Dog, proves as adept at directing suspense as he is comedy, but the movie's best moments feature an appropriately off-the-rails Williams calling politicians on both sides of the aisle on their dishonesty and hypocrisy.