The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, March 8-14
Wag the Dog (1997)
Directed by Barry Levinson
It’s an interesting prospect when a film becomes “so relevant right now,” two decades after its release, and I guess that’s the motivation for this screening of Levinson’s Oscar-nominated satire, which focuses much of its timeline to the fabrication of literal “fake news.” Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, both fantastic, create a fake war with Albania to cover up a sexual-abuse scandal in which the president has been compromised, complete with merchandising, fake war footage, songs and anthems to enthuse the people. Not that the film wasn’t relevant at the time of its release, a month before the Clinton-Lewinsky affair became public knowledge—and as the Bush years rolled along, it became even more telling about “the way things are done here,” as the press aligns itself with the narrative the government wants to push (at least until 2016). In a way, the film was brave at the time, posing as an absurdist comedy about the extent that someone might go to cover things up, but now it’s more sobering than hilarious. Jaime Grijalba (March 10-12, 11am at IFC Center’s “Autocratic for the People”)