A prominent film critic has included a satirical political ad that takes aim at various high-profile Democrats among his list of the best films of the year.
The list: National Review’s Armond White, an iconoclastic critic known for his dissident takes on the media and culture, praised “2020: The Movie” for rectifying “the damage done to America’s self-image.”
The satirical ad was released by conservative political action website Power Tie in July and included in White’s yearly “Better-Than List,” which was published by National Review on Friday.
- Edited in the style of blockbuster film trailers, “2020: The Movie” uses real footage of Hollywood actors being interviewed to take shots at celebrity Democrats, such as President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
- “It’s so much fun to think about nothing but just this crazy character,” actress Kathy Bates said in the video, supposedly speaking in reference to her portrayal of Clinton.
The analysis: In a piece for National Review published in July, White lauded “2020: The Movie” for subverting “the fakery of mainstream media practices from standard Hollywood marketing to disingenuous journalism and the political grandstanding that the media ‘holds accountable’ only when convenient for its own purposes.”
- “This is an epic summation of how politicians and journalists cooperate in charades that call their personal integrity into question (such as those anti-gun clips or the millionaires singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’),” White wrote. “They play the public for fools, but 2020 The Movie cuts through unctuous appeals to our naïve trust — and restores our indignation. It is a crash course in media literacy.”
