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Next Tuesday is Election Day and, if things go as well as expected, the beginning of Election Month. On both sides of the political chasm, the rhetoric is fierce and anxiety is spiking. The mess has people reevaluating their plans to stayed connected as the results roll in (or don’t). Some may aim to unplug social media, go to bed early, or head into the woods. Personally, I’ll be spending the day at the park with my kids (who don’t have school), then turning off all of my notifications and watching movies until I pass out (yes, I already voted).
I’m not sure what I’ll watch—perhaps a cozy screwball farce from Hollywood’s golden age, or something super long that will keep me distracted for at least three hours, or maybe whatever’s playing on the Criterion Channel’s 24/7 livestream—but if you want to mark the occasion without actually paying attention to it, there are a host of election-themed movies to choose from too. Almost any of them would be a lot more fun to live through than the actual Election Day.
Primary Colors (1998)
After the hell we’ve all endured since political discourse took a nosedive in 2016, it’s comforting to cast our gaze back a few decades and reflect on how quaint ‘90s politics seem in retrospect. This Mike Nichols film, based on the “anonymous” novel, places a thin veil of fiction over the sex scandals that marred Bill Clinton’s first run at the presidency. A stellar cast, led by a game John Travolta and a hauntingly affecting Kathy Bates as the political advisor who places her trust in the wrong guy, brings to life a story of political gamesmanship that would feel deeply cynical if things hadn’t subsequently gotten so much worse.
Where to stream: Digital rental
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
There are two adaptations of Richard Cordon’s 1959 political thriller to choose from—the 1962 version with Angela Landsbury and Frank Sinatra, and the 2004 version with Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington. Hardcore cineasts will probably advocate for the former, but the latter is a perfectly entertaining film, too. (Provided you find terrifying tales of foreign and/or corporate interference in politics to the extremes of brainwashing and murder to be entertaining.) Either way, both climax in an Election Day upheaval that would honestly seem like par for the course by this point in 2024.
Where to stream: The Roku Channel, Tubi, Pluto TV, digital rental
Shampoo (1975)
I had no idea Shampoo was a stealth election movie until I sat down to watch it prior to the last presidential contest. On the surface, the story of Los Angeles hairdresser/lothario George (played by Warren Beatty) juggling the many women in his life with all the skill of Jack Tripper in an unusually over-the-top episode of Three’s Company has little to do with politics. But the absurd farce unfolds against a backdrop of the 1968 election, with the day’s newsworthy events glimped on televisions and in overheard snatches of conversation throughout. Whether or not George realizes it (he’s too busy chasing after or hiding from the likes of Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, and Carrie Fisher to notice), Nixon’s eventual victory signaled a sea change in American culture, and the death knell for the idealism and free love of the 1960s. It’s a delightfully entertaining downer.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Election (1999)
Alexander Payne’s adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s satirical novel about a hotly contested election for high school student council president succeeds because it treats its relatively meaningless subject matter—has the outcome of a student council election ever mattered to anyone who wasn’t running?—with utter seriousness. Matthew Broderick plays a sad-sack teacher whose visceral dislike for overambitious candidate Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) turns out to be his undoing. In a way, I can relate—no one wants to see the wrong person win—but fixing an election is never the way to go.
Where to stream: Paramount+ With Showtime, MGM+, digital rental
The Candidate (1972)
Fletch and Bad News Bears director Michael Ritchie also helmed the lesser-known The Candidate, a super ‘70s political satire starring Robert Redford as Bill McKay, the son of a former Democratic governor of California who is hand-picked by a political strategist to run a seemingly un-winnable race against a sitting Republican senator. Since no one expects him to prevail, McKay is given license to say whatever he wants to, without factoring in the counsel of political strategists. This proves…unpopular, and since the Democrats don’t want to be completely obliterated, they eventually advise McKay to make his message more palatable to the mainstream. Unsurprisingly, considering he looks like Robert Redford, McKay grows more popular the blander and more centrist his speeches get. I’d point out parallels to 2024, but I’m too depressed and I have lots more movies to write up.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Head of State (2003)
Chris Rock wrote and directed this 2003 comedy in which he plays an “everyman,” a low-level failed politician chosen by a scrambling Democratic party to run for president in the hopes that his “authenticity” will connect with voters. Initially inspired, Rock grows more cynical as he learns the real reason the party gave him a shot—they were only hoping to pander to voters and build momentum for the next go-around—and decides to do something about it. The movie then enters the realm of pure invention, but it’s nice to dream.
Where to stream: Paramount+ With Showtime, digital rental
Swing Vote (2008)
Swing Vote, released eight years after George W. Bush took the White House for the first time after winning (maybe; see Recount lower down) the swing state of Florida, spins an absurd political fable from an even more unbelievable premise: Due to a malfunctioning voting machine, an entire presidential election comes down to a single vote in one state. That said voter (played by Kevin Coster) is an ill-informed boob who only voted at all because his politically engaged young daughter forced him to only makes the film’s message (“America is great because our votes give us all a voice!”) harder to swallow.
Where to stream: Prime Video, The Roku Channel, digital rental
Nashville (1975)
Arguably the best film in the long filmography of the late Robert Altman, Nashville is, in the foreground, a sprawling look at the intersecting lives of a huge cast of characters (the trailer above boasts 24 of them, a litany of now-familiar names) in or on the periphery of the country music scene. But it all plays out against the backdrop of a fictionalized 1976 presidential election, kicking off with an independent candidate’s arrival in the city for a political rally/concert. We follow some two dozen characters as they all make their way toward that climactic event, and how it unfolds will remind you that politics was already pretty wild, tense, and unpredictable five decades ago.
Where to stream: Digital purchase
Tanner ‘88 (1988)
Also directed by Robert Altman and written by Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau, Tanner ‘88 is actually a miniseries, but it goes down pretty easy. Mixing fact and fiction, it blends the made-up candidacy of Democratic presidential hopeful Jack Tanner with the real circumstances of the 1988 primary race that ended with Michael Dukakis earning a spot on a particularly ill-fated party ticket. The cameras investigate the campaign from all angles, from the on-the-ground staffers, to the media, to the voters, highlighting the routine absurdity of American politics from inside and out. Cynthia Nixon appears in an early role as Tanner’s idealistic young daughter, a part she returned to decades later for the four-part followup, Tanner on Tanner.
Where to stream: Digital purchase
Recount (2008)
Written by actor-turned-filmmaker Danny Strong (who had recurring roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls), this 2008 HBO film puts an impressive lineup of talent (Kevin Spacey notwithstanding) to work recreating the upheaval and uncertainty that erupted after neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore appeared to have definitively won the presidency in 2000. The story opens on Election Day and…
You know what, never mind. Don’t watch this one.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Game Change (2012)
If you want to relive more recent election history, try Game Change (from the same writer/director team as Recount) instead. It unpacks the drama behind Barack Obama’s pivotal run for the White House in 2008, but focuses less on the charismatic senator from Illinois (who only appears via real archival footage) and more on upstart Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore). It’s funny to look back and consider how wild and unprecedented this race seemed at the time—and how quaint it looks to our tired eyes now.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Man of the Year (2006)
Truthfully, this satirical late-career box office disappointment from Robin Williams and director Barry Levinson isn’t as clever or funny as it thinks it is (Levinson’s Wag the Dog is a much better film, but too grim and cynical for election 2024 viewing). But the plot does revolve around a blowhard political commentator-turned-viable candidate who actually steps away from an election win after learning he benefitted from a voting machine glitch, so by modern standards, it’s basically a fairytale.
Where to stream: Peacock, Pluto TV, digital rental
The Front Runner (2018)
This under-seen 2018 political biopic from co-writer/director Jason Reitman (whose behind-the-scenes-of-Saturday Night Live comedy Saturday Night is now in theaters) looks back at the abbreviated campaign of 1988 Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman), whose White House dreams were squashed after word got out about his extramarital affair. Imagine living in a world where a sex scandal could end a politician’s career! Oh wait, Hart was a Democrat. Never mind, story checks out.
Where to stream: Starz, digital rental
All the President’s Men (1976)
Last week, The Washington Post got in hot water with a certain segment of its subscriber base for its ill-timed announcement that it would no longer endorse political candidates. The outcry against billionaire owner Jeff Bezos (who took credit for the decision but denied a partisan intent behind it) resulted in some 250,000 people canceling their subscriptions. It’s a far cry from the political scandal that consumed the paper some 50 years ago, when the Watergate investigation spearheaded by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (played here by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) took down the presidency of Richard Nixon. Democracy dies in darkness, and all that.
Where to stream: Digital rental
The American President (1995)
And finally, speaking of fairytales, there’s always Aaron Sorkin’s pre-The West Wing political rom-com about a love affair between the popular sitting Democratic President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) and political idealist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), a lawyer working for a lobby group fighting to pass a bill to reduce CO2 emissions. Like Sorkin’s later TV series, the movie purports to get into the nitty-gritty of how government is run and how laws are passed (it involves a lot of rat-a-tat screwball comedy dialogue). Even 30 years ago, its wide-eyed belief in the power of noble intentions, hard work, and bipartisanship to change things in Washington seemed like naive optimism. Today, it plays like pure make-believe. And escapism is what we’re all seeking right now, isn’t it?
Where to stream: Digital rental
