Miss Sloane (2016)
Directed by John Madden
An ambitious lobbyist faces off against the powerful gun lobby in an attempt to pass gun control legislation.
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What critics say influenced Miss Sloane
“Miss Sloane” is at once unapologetically melodramatic and surprisingly wonky — similar to, but less elegant than, the legal thriller “Michael Clayton.”
It’s Michael Clayton meets The West Wing , with no kindly and wise elder statesmen to be found.
Directed by handsome drama maestro John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and positioned as a cross between “Michael Clayton” and “All the President’s Men,” the movie features morally bankrupt D.C. power players and blackmail scenes set in shady parking garages, making inspired use of genre clichés even as it offers a relatively fresh look at one of the most manipulative forces on Capitol Hill today: the special-interest lobbyist.
She roars through this political drama, as glamorously cynical as his 2011 directorial effort The Ides of March, and plays a morally conflicted Washington lobbyist similar to the guilty corporate fixer he rode to an Oscar nomination in Michael Clayton.
The film, directed by John Madden – best known for “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” – moves in gyrations done before and more genuinely in “Michael Clayton” and “Thank You for Smoking,” but does bring a unique lens to the D.C. universe, especially the means of capturing votes and identifying target blocs.
"Scandal" meets "Michael Clayton," this wild thriller about the dark art of lobbying might be the political movie the world needs right now.
She is a whip-smart and seemingly soulless professional, reminiscent of Faye Dunaway's TV executive from Chayefsky's Network .
One more bad thing, except this is one that the movie somehow turns into a good thing: It’s a mishmash of a cynical satire along the lines of “Network” with Frank Capra-style triumph-of-the-little-people melodrama with a con-man caper with a John Grisham legal thriller.
But the pair are also captives of the genre dynamics in which they have chosen to utilize, and while both are doing their best Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky impersonations that doesn’t mean their motion picture has the power, grace or authority of something like Network or The Hospital .
Comparisons to Network would not be inapt for this cutting and corrosive drama packed with high-stakes Washington, D.C., hustlers as cutthroat as anyone on Game of Thrones or House of Cards, all determined not only to beat but to annihilate their adversaries.
It’s Thank You for Smoking and Wag the Dog with all the satire stripped out and just the crass reality remaining.
The film, directed by John Madden – best known for “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” – moves in gyrations done before and more genuinely in “Michael Clayton” and “Thank You for Smoking,” but does bring a unique lens to the D.C. universe, especially the means of capturing votes and identifying target blocs.
As an indictment of the lobbying business, the film lacks the satirical wit of Jason Reitman’s “Thank You for Smoking.”
We don’t see a lot of cinematic representation of the lobbying world; when it’s played for drama like it is here (as opposed to the satire of something like 2006’s excellent “Thank You for Smoking”), there’s a lot of potential.
The last notable film that comes to mind that centered on a modern political lobbyist was Jason Reitman's amusing Thank You for Smoking (2005) but, given its concentration on women trying to hold their own with the big boys, a more direct parallel is provided by this year's Equity, a solid, if not entirely realized, look at women fighting to make their mark in investment banking.
But the pair are also captives of the genre dynamics in which they have chosen to utilize, and while both are doing their best Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky impersonations that doesn’t mean their motion picture has the power, grace or authority of something like Network or The Hospital .
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And yet, as with J.C. Chandor’s 2011 “Margin Call,” one gets the sense that actors must not see this kind of material often enough, settling for ersatz Sorkin when it’s the best they can get.
In its best moments recalling J.C. Chandor’s debut Margin Call, freshman screenwriter Jonathan Perera’s script sat on last year’s black list before becoming snapped up.
There are a lot of elements to enjoy in British director John Madden's eleventh feature – including the pace of dialogue exchanged in a way that almost matches the famously breakneck speed of His Girl Friday .
Four of her colleagues “Jerry Maguire” with her, but not her trusted protege (“The Newsroom’s” Alison Pill), who tries to make a name for herself by bringing down Sloane.
And so, she pulls a Jerry Maguire and jumps ship to a boutique firm called Peterson Wyatt to work the other side of the gun-control issue.
In what she herself recognizes is a “Jerry Maguire” move, she quits, taking her staff with her — except for Jane (Alison Pill), her closest aide, who opts to stay with the high salary and opportunity for partnership.
The bulk of the story deals with Sloane and her team (many of whom followed her Jerry Maguire -style from her last gig) trying to secure the votes of 60 senators in 84 days to pass gun control legislation, which leads to some dutifully constructed, fast paced, Sorkin-esque walk-and-talks that play out between the warring sides.
First-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera launches Miss Sloane with a tantalizing, sharp-edged premise that recalls the great paranoid political thrillers of the 1970s, savage indictments of political and corporate corruption such as The Parallax View, All the President’s Men, and Network.
Directed by handsome drama maestro John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and positioned as a cross between “Michael Clayton” and “All the President’s Men,” the movie features morally bankrupt D.C. power players and blackmail scenes set in shady parking garages, making inspired use of genre clichés even as it offers a relatively fresh look at one of the most manipulative forces on Capitol Hill today: the special-interest lobbyist.
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I’m going to wear my recommendation for “Miss Sloane” like a badge, because I’m a sucker for political thrillers from “The Day of the Jackal” to “The Parallax View” to “Three Days of the Condor’ to “Absolute Power” to “Enemy of the State” to “The Interpreter.”
Director John Madden probably wouldn’t mind Miss Sloane being compared to The Verdict or And Justice for All .