Bob Roberts

views updated

Bob Roberts ★★★ 1992 (R)

Excellent pseudo-documentary satire about a 1990 Pennsylvania senatorial race between Robbins' titular right-wing folk singer/entrepreneur versus Brickley Paiste's (Vidal) aging liberal incumbent. Roberts seems like a gee-whiz kinda guy but he'll stop at nothing to get elected and he knows a lot about political dirty tricks and, even more important, manipulating the media to get what he wants. Robbins di-rectorial debut turned out to be very timely in view of the 1992 Clinton/Bush presidential campaign. Features a number of cameos. Line to remember: “Vote first. Ask questions later.” 105m/C VHS, DVD . Jack Black, Tom Atkins, Helen Hunt, Peter Gallagher, Lynne Thigpen, Bingo O'Malley, Kathleen Chal-fant, Matthew Faber, Matt McGrath, Jeremy Piven, Steve Pink, Fisher Stevens, Bob Balaban, Allan Nicholls, June Stein, Adam Simon, Ned Bellamy, Robert Hegyes, Lee Arenberg, Natalie Strong, Merilee Dale, Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Rebecca Jenkins, Harry J. Lennix, John Ottavino, Robert Stanton, Alan Rickman, Gore Vi-dal, Brian Murray, Anita Gillette, David Strathairn, Susan Sarandon, James Spader, John Cusack, Fred Ward, Pamela Reed; D: Tim Robbins; W: Tim Robbins; C: Jean Lepine; M: David Robbins.