By Chris Satullo

This far into quarantine, I’ve discovered even I have a limit to how many British crime miniseries and replays of playoff games I can watch.  Got me thinking about other forms of entertainment that usually work for me.

One that rushed to mind: political dramas.

Since you read this site, you may well share this quirk with me. So, without further delay, here is my list of The 25 Movies about Politics That I’d Most Recommend as Ways to Occupy Quarantine.

A couple of notes: These are all dramas; no documentaries, though some of these films of course are based on real life. I let into the corral of honor a few movies that debuted on HBO or other cable channels. And the list is alphabetical, not ranked by merit; I wasted enough brain cells on this as it is. 

All the King’s Men (1949) – A haunting, noir treatment of the Robert Penn Warren novel that is one of my all-time favorites. Broderick Crawford took the lead role as the Huey Long-style politician after John Wayne (!) turned it down, then beat out Wayne for the Oscar. (How’d Crawford end up on TV’s Highway Patrol just six short yearsafter this? 10-4.)

All the Way (2016) –  Bryan Cranston is brilliant (of course) as Lyndon Baines Johnson navigating the moment when the America we’re still living in was being born – losing the South for the Democratic party so that he could win the Civil Rights Act, becoming mired in Vietnam, dealing with homophobia, trying to rein in the paranoid power of J. Edgar Hoover.

All the President’s Men (1976) – No movie has had more impact on my life. In 1976, I was pulled out of the shower at my mom’s house in Cleveland for a phone call. The Easton Express was calling, offering me a job as a reporter at $135 a week. Even then, that was peanuts. I told them I’d think about it. I dried off, got dressed and went to a movie with friends. This one. The next day, on fire to save the Republic, I called back and said yes. First day on the job, I met the woman who’d become my wife. Over the years, when long hours, low pay, and nasty notes from readers would get us down, she and I would re-watch this well-crafted film for an idealism recharge. I know every line of dialogue. None more so than the speech Ben Bradlee (a superb Jason Robards) gives to his two star reporters on his front lawn in his robe at movie’s end:

“We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys f*** up again, I’m going to get mad.”

At least a dozen times in my career, I’ve gone out of my way to deliver a version of this speech to reporters. Half of the time, they didn’t get the allusion.

Bulworth (1998) – A lacerating satire starring Warren Beatty as a fading politician contemplating suicide by hired assassin. The plot reminds that “single payer system” have been fighting words for a long time. Great cast includes a young, memorable Don Cheadle.

Being There (1979) –  “I like to watch.” That’s the money line from this somber satire starring Peter Sellers as an autistic gardener who somehow becomes an adviser to presidents. Yes, I thought about this film a lot as we lived through 2016.

City of Hope (1991) –  John Sayles is America’s greatest independent film maker. I say this not just because we share an alma mater (Williams College) but because this film, which I’d rank in the top 5 of this list if I were ranking, might not be his best film, maybe not even second or third. Lone Star is nearly perfect; Eight Men Out takes some factual liberties with the story of the 1919 Black Sox, but it’s the second best baseball movie of all time. (The best? Duh. Bull Durham.)  City of Hope, long before Traffic or Crash, wove a multi-thread, myriad-character tale that comes together in the end with devastating impact. Like The Wire, the film paints a portrait of a city (fictional Hudson City, N.J.) driven in circles by greed, hope, race, idealism, despair, hype, brutality, and corruption. Joe Morton, long before he became Olivia Pope’s dad, is spectacular as a city alderman trying to do the right thing.

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) –  An Adam Sorkin script had to be on this list. But I absolutely refuse to cite The American President, even though I’ve watched it multiple times.  Sure, it has its charming moments and the usual array of Sorkinisms.  But the fact is: What Michael Douglas’ POTUS does with the Annette Bening character, then so self-righteously defends with full Sorkin bombast, is an unpardonable conflict of interest that surely deserves censure. Only a cartoonish, carpet-chewing villain like the Richard Dreyfuss character could fail to make the case. By contrast, Charlie Wilson’s War has a fine cast – Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt – and accurately depicts how the United States’ attention-deficit disorder in Middle East gave rise to the Talaban, bin-Laden and 9/11.

Dave (1993) – Sorry, I insist. This charming comedy carries out its ludicrous premise – a lookalike standing in for a comatose president – with a winning earnestness. Kevin Klein’s naïf in the Oval Office actually makes a fair point: Sometimes the solutions to our problems are not as complex as the greed-tinged conventional wisdom would have it. Hey, I notice Frank Langella’s in this one, as he is in about a half-dozen movies on this list.

Fair Game (2010) – OK, I admit. I have a soft spot for flawed films that drive home what a malignant jerk Dick Cheney was. (See below: Vice.)  But this account of the Cheney-led smear of Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame objections to falsified WMD intelligence is pretty accurate, and Naomi Watts is good as Plame.

Frost-Nixon (2008) –  Michael Sheen and Frank Langella are far more watchable than the real-life people they’re playing in this, David Frost and Richard Nixon.

Game Change (2012) – Julianne Moore earned every statuette she got for her portrayal of Sarah Palin, which was somehow at once unsparing and sympathetic. Sarah Paulson is nearly as good as an exasperated Nicolle Wallace, driven to distraction (and, eventually, MSNBC) by the challenges of trying to rein in a candidate “gone rogue.”

Ides of March (20110 – This darkly cynical film is underrated. Ryan Gosling, as a somewhat idealistic campaign aide for a presidential candidate played by George Clooney, gets whipsawed by operatives Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, not to mention Marisa Tomei as yet another reporter with dubious ethics. (Really, Hollywood?)  That’s some acting firepower there. Looking at IMDB, I note with surprise that the movie was also a Westworld pre-union, with Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright in supporting roles.

Lincoln (2012) –  Steven Spielberg’s typically manipulative reach for gauzy uplift at the end almost spoiled it for me but, c’mon, it’s Daniel Day Lewis.  How can you leave this performance off the list? Also of value in this portrait of our greatest president is how candidly it depicts him sanctioning sleazy horse trading to achieve a higher aim. Abe, unlike, oh, I don’t know…Bernie Sanders…understands that sometimes, if you need to make sausage, your hands will get a little greasy.

Milk (2008) – Sean Penn is fantastic as the San Francisco supervisor assassinated by a former colleague in the case that gave rise to the “Twinkie Defense.” Gus Van Sant’s direction goes for nuance and complexity over self-righteous bombast. (See, Aaron? It can be done.)

Miss Sloane (2016) – This has an improbable ending and a cringe-worthy scene early on where supposedly professional advocates ask third-grade questions about how politics works. But on the list because of Jessica Chastain’s oh-my-God-so-great performance as a win-at-all-costs lobbyist.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – Of course, this has to be on the list.  One point: Just as with It’s a Wonderful Life, despite the forced happy ending, this is actually a very dark, candid film about the damage that corporate power and political corruption were doing to 20^th-century America.

Primary Colors (1998) – This rendering of Joe Klein’s (originally anonymous) novel on the mysterious double helix of the Clintons’ partnership is actually better than the book. John Travolta is pretty good as the Clinton character, looking to capture, rather than impersonate, his real-life model. Billy Bob Thornton obviously was born to play the James Carville character and Kathy Bates is spectacular as the appalled aide who belatedly realizes the type of people she’s been doing the dirty work for.

Recount (2008) – This HBO telling of the Bush/Gore Florida debacle definitely tilts to the Gore side (as will history). But Tom Wilkinson as James Baker lends some gravitas to the other side. It’s weird now to see Kevin Spacey in a “good-guy” role (Gore aide Ron Klain). Denis Leary is great as a Gore true believer and Laura Dern kills as Katharine Harris, Florida’s ditzy but damaging secretary of state.

Selma (2014) – Why’d it take so long for someone to make a great film about the civil rights era that put black people, not white people, at the center of the frame? Well, I guess we know why. Director Ana DuVernay corrected the error with crisp artistry. David Oyewolo was great as MLK. Then they both got passed over at the Oscars. Sigh.

Seven Days in May (1964) – When this Kennedy-era film came out, we were expected to cheer as a peace-making President played by Frederic March (and named Jordan Lyman – perhaps Josh Lyman’s dad?) foils a coup attempt from a military cabal led by the Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas characters. But, admit it, haven’t there been times in the last four years when you wished Mad Dog Mattes would at least pick up this book and consider the possibilities?

The Candidate (1972) – I can’t believe some “best” lists I consulted for ideas didn’t have this Robert Redford classic. Two imperishable moments: an exhausted Redford turning his stump speech into gibberish in the back of a campaign car and (spoiler alert!), after his upset win for a Senate seat is announced, blankly asking his campaign adviser (Peter Boyle), “What do we do now?”

The Contender (2000) – This one is mostly forgotten, but how good was Joan Allen as a steely, principled senator being considered for vice president? The plot anticipates (not that this was all that hard to do) the lengths to which people would soon go to block Hillary Clinton, while commenting on our political addiction to prurient dirt. Jeff Bridges hams it up as a president delivering a not entirely convincing happy ending.

13 Days (2001) – Yep, the focus on Kevin Costner’s character, JFK aide Kenny O’Donnell, is a bit weird, given that he was a bit player in the real event, but the film crafts a plausible portrait – steering clear of melodrama and hagiography – of how an untested White House managed, barely, to avoid screwing up a major crisis.  Might be hard to rewatch at this moment.

Vice (2018) – No, Adam McKay’s daring methods as writer and director don’t work here anywhere near as well as in The Big Short. But I still relished this takedown of Dick Cheney, who deserved every second. Christian Bale is amazing as the Dark Veep.

Wag the Dog (1997) – Love Barry Levinson. Love David Mamet. Love DeNiro. But didn’t love this one as much as some did. Still has to be on the list for how it uncannily presaged the Lewinsky scandal, followed by Clinton’s futile bombing of Sudan. But as we now know, to our infinite sadness, trying to take out Osama bin-Laden was a wise goal that didn’t deserve the Wag the Dog analogy. Amid the great cast, Denis Leary’s cameo turn as “The Fad King” deserves a salute.

Finally, three movies that are on a lot of lists like this (but I somehow never saw):  The Manchurian Candidate (the original, with Frank Sinatra); Election (which launched Reese Witherspoon); Malcolm X (Denzel is apparently really good in it).

Happy binging!

NOTE: For anyone wondering, I do temporarily rescind all the nasty things I said in this space recently about mail-in voting. Of course, it’s the right response to the extraordinary moment we’re enduring.

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Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia.