Dir. Ron Howard
Writ. Peter Morgan
Act. Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon

Finally, a movie to come out this year (2008) that is without-a-doubt deserving of the phrase Best Picture.

Three years after resigning the U.S. Presidency, Richard M. Nixon, played by Frank Langella (Good Night and Good Luck), agrees to a four-part series of interviews with popular British talk-show host David Frost (The Queen).

Frost looks to use the interviews as a way to put the screws to Nixon about his criminal acts during his final year in office and gain popularity among American TV viewers; however, Nixon, former Chief of Staff Jack Brennan, played by Kevin Bacon (The Woodsman), and the others in the former President's corner have a few tricks up their sleeves to dominate the interviews and gain leverage for an eventual move back to Washington D.C.

This is certainly Best Picture all around. This project was interesting from beginning to end and remained exciting through the third act.

The movie, based on the Tony Award winning play by Peter Morgan, who also penned the screenplay, had great character writing for Frost, Nixon and Brennan. The outer and inner motivations for each of these characters were very clear and enjoyable.

That being said, there has to be great vehicles to pass on these motivations and conflicts, and there were three vehicles that rose far above expectations. Sheen, Langella and Bacon were amazing in their respective roles. Langella also won a Tony Award for playing the same role on Broadway. Sheen was also nominated. The pair were in the original stage cast as well.

Ron Howard, as director (A Beautiful Mind, The DaVinci Code), does adopt a docu-drama style which was jarring to me at first, but eventually I slipped into it; however, Howard brought this great boxing-match concept to shooting the actual interview sessions, which was super entertaining to watch.

Outside of all that, this is an important movie to see without being pretentious. I would say it's one of my two favorite films that involve the U.S. Presidency, second only to JFK. I recommend, encourage and urge anyone to see this highly-entertaining and well-made picture.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?