_The Front Runner_ is pretty good. It's about Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) who was the front runner for US Democratic Presidential candidate in the late '80s. So the film follows how (spoiler alert) things quickly unravelled for him and his campaign. I found it a little confusing at first, since I'm not too familiar with the events in question, but it did get rather interesting.

It's an interesting story, that's well acted and portrayed with verve. While the stakes may not seem all that high, or relevant, it's an event that changed the landscape of politics, news and the world really... It also raises some really solid debates and ideas as to what really matters.

_The Front Runner_ is a dated news story read by someone good at story telling. In addition to being unoriginal, the news story is unflattering to women, politicians and the press. Basically, it's a bed time story with only ogres, as Hugh Jackman in someone else's borrowed hair portrays a politician upset that the press catches him cheating on his wife multiple times. While Hugh's award fever smells more like awkward desperation for taking on this role, the film is a technical success. Jason Reitman proves once again that he's a competent director, the movie's shot in 35mm which gives it an authentic, vintage look, and the cast turn in solid performances. Sadly, all of these are wasted on a story that is more suited to Access Hollywood than a feature film.

The events depicted were slightly before my time (5 year olds tend not to follow presidential primaries), but weirdly prescient to our world in 2026. I like seeing Hugh Jackman and J.K. Simmons here. Other actors were good too. I liked how traditional and straightforward it was as a movie. I also tend to like political dramas so this really hit the spot for me. A little slow at the end. Some clumsy pacing. I think they thought they had some sort of award contender movie here and inflated some scenes or performances, when instead I wanted it a little snappier.

Competently made but barely scratches the thematic surface Based on the non-fiction book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid (2014) by Matt Bai, written for the screen by Bai, Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking; Juno; Tully) , and Jay Carson (Hilary Clinton's former press secretary), and directed by Reitman, The Front Runner tells the story of Colorado senator Gary Hart's doomed 1988 presidential campaign. The most likely candidate to win the Democratic nomination, Hart's reputation was shattered when a Miami Herald story accused him of an extramarital affair, and only three weeks into his campaign, he withdrew from the race. The film presents the events of those weeks as a seismic turning-point; when political journalism and tabloid sensationalism irrevocably fused, when private scandal became just as important to the American public as political acumen, perhaps even moreso. Aspiring to the kind of multi-character canvas of Robert Altman or early Paul Thomas Anderson, The Front Runner recalls Altman's 1988 miniseries, Tanner '88. However, it spreads itself far too thin, trying to take on the perspective of a plethora of characters, yet telling us very little about any of them, least of all Hart himself. And in the end, it fails to work as either a darkly satirical examination of the Hart scandal, or as a socio-political critique of the current constitutional environment in the US. For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/Cpull