Vote Dickie!! (but don't see his movie)

I love John Sayles. From The Seacacus Seven to Matewan to Lone Star to Sunshine State, his films are always smart, unique, and intriguing. But his new film Silver City is a misfire.

I was really looking forward to especially after I came across this website for the film. The website is great satire of political campaigns but the film can decide what it wants to be. Chris Cooper is fantastic as dimwit Gubenatorial candidate Dickie Pilager. His perfomance is one of the best George W. Bush impressions ever. But its not clear if the movie is supposed to a satire, a thriller, or a story of personal growth. Its also not clear if this a story of political corruption or the plight of illegal immigrants. Sayles should have either made picked a story and made a 90 minute film about that or stretched it out into a sprawling 10 hour HBO series.

Other thoughts on the the film: The politcal corruption portrayed in the film was rather hohum. With the corruption that happens in the real world, fictional corruption really ought to take it to the next level to be meaningful. Danny Houston was fun as the lead but he also seemed out of place but that may have been because he kept sounding like his father the late great director John Huston. I did not believe that Chris Cooper was Michael Murphy's son. Murphy is only 12 years older than Cooper! Billy Zane with shaved head and bike shorts is not believable as a heterosexual man. The myriad of big name star with small roles in the film was distracting. Rather than meeting new characters it was Oh look there is Tim Roth! Thora Birch! Richard Dreyfus! Daryl Hannah! etc....

Following on the heels of mediocre Casa de los Babys, or as Headstart calls it Casa de los Boring, I wonder if maybe Sayles has begun to lose it. Hopefully his next movie about Jim Thorpe will be a return to form.