Episode 9 - The American President
With today being Election Day, we considered covering a movie about the Apocalypse, but instead decided to tear apart a movie about a U.S. president. So we went with the 1995 so-called romantic comedy "The American President." It's the movie responsible for subjecting the world to seven seasons of "The West Wing."
Michael Douglas plays Andrew Shepherd, a widower president who instantly falls in love with an environmental lobbyist, Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) as his re-election is creeping up. And he has to decide whether the cost of following his heart outweighs the potential consequences blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc. Oh, it's a painful one.
We break down Aaron Sorkin's entire bullshit formula and annoying dialogue, we wonder why the president's daughter needs a permission slip when she's constantly followed around by the Secret Service, and we try to figure out whether it's prostitution for a lobbyist to date the president or just simply a total lack of ethics. But mainly, we're just enraged that a movie this bad is so popular. No wonder this election is between those two awful candidates.
Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.
This episode is sponsored by the Canadian Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.