THE FRONT RUNNER : Official Reviews (SPOILERS )

[jo]

www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/front-runner-review-1139195?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

'The Front Runner': Film Review | Telluride 2018
1:05 AM PDT 9/1/2018 by Stephen Farber


A lively but superficial chronicle of a politician's freefall.


Hugh Jackman portrays disgraced presidential candidate Gary Hart in Jason Reitman's latest film, costarring Vera Farmiga and J.K. Simmons.


Donald Trump is definitely an unseen presence at this year’s Telluride Film Festival. Documentaries about another embattled president’s undoing during Watergate and the threat to reverse Roe v. Wade are generating buzz, and Sebastian Silva’s film about the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico also has clear political overtones.

And then there is Jason Reitman’s movie about Gary Hart’s 1988 Presidential campaign, which was roaring along until it was scuttled by reports of the candidate’s sexual misconduct. What a difference a few decades make! The Front Runner encourages audiences to contemplate huge changes in attitudes about politicians’ sexual dalliances. Rumors about the affairs of FDR, JFK, LBJ and even Eisenhower were kept muzzled and never interfered with these men’s successful campaigns. But that changed when reporters from the Miami Herald got wind of Hart’s extra-marital dalliance with Donna Rice, and the rest of the media quickly succumbed to the feeding frenzy.


This film, adapted from Matt Bai’s book about the Hart campaign, is both provocative and somewhat disappointing. Yet the timeliness of the subject and Hugh Jackman’s commanding performance as Hart should generate healthy box office.

The film benefits from tight, propulsive storytelling; even at a late-night screening in Telluride, the audience was clearly riveted. After a brief prologue about Hart’s failed 1984 campaign, the film (scripted by Reitman, Bai and Jay Carson) jumps into the launch of his 1988 campaign, where he was quickly labeled the front-runner. Smooth and intelligent, he soon became a darling of the media. But he had been plagued by rumors of womanizing, and his meeting with Rice on a boat quickly led to an explosion of tabloid reporting.


Although the film spends time on Hart’s relationship with his wife (superbly played by Vera Farmiga) and his daughter (Kaitlyn Dever), it devotes as much time to his campaign staff and to the reporters swirling around him. Reitman has said that he was influenced by the Michael Ritchie-Robert Redford movie, The Candidate, wanting to immerse us in the unglamorous day-to-day routines of a political campaign.


In a sense, The Front Runner is more of an ensemble movie than a Hugh Jackman star vehicle, and it does a fine job of giving texture to the daily challenges of strategy and crisis management. The cast is huge, and yet thanks to sharp writing and swift editing by Stefan Grube, most of the individual characters have a chance to make an impression. Reitman veteran J.K. Simmons contributes another splendid turn as the campaign manager devoted to his candidate but also concerned about the effect of Hart’s mistakes on all the dedicated staff members.


The reporters foraging around Hart and Donna Rice also register vividly. Kevin Pollak has a neat cameo as the pugnacious editor defending his somewhat sleazy reporters, and there is a strong performance by Mamoudou Athle as a more principled reporter for the Washington Post. A clever scene invented by the writers shows Hart calming the reporter’s jitters during a bumpy flight. The bond between them makes the reporter’s later sense of betrayal more piercing.


All of these touches give the movie detail, but at the expense of an in-depth examination of the central character. The film never quite clarifies its own attitude toward Hart. It simply doesn’t spend enough time with him to allow the audience to decide whether he was a truly transformative politician undone by tabloid reporters or just another slick operator. This robs the film of a tragic dimension that it might have achieved.


Nevertheless, given the limitations of the role, Jackman delivers one of his finest performances. He allows us to see the character’s charisma and essential decency, along with a certain solipsism that has undone many leaders. When Hart begins to realize what is at stake, he asks his wife, “Are you leaving me?” and that line, subtly conveying both shame and fear, may be one of the most effective lines that Jackman has ever delivered. Farmiga captures the strength along with the hurt of a woman subject to the most extreme form of public humiliation. The film also extends sympathy to Rice, played by Sara Paxton, though her role isn’t as well written as some of the others.


The theme of the film seems to be that Hart opened the floodgates to the tabloid press and became a kind of martyr to the media’s sudden eagerness to flay politicians’ sexual misdeeds. By the time Bill Clinton and Donald Trump came along, these scandals had become so routine that these men managed to emerge relatively unscathed from far more salacious revelations. But the film would have had a stronger impact if it had convinced us that Gary Hart, who was destroyed by a prying press, had the potential for greatness that his successors never matched.

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J.K. Simmons, Alfred Molina, Kaitlyn Dever, Kevin Pollak, Mamoudou Athle, Alex Karpovsky, Tommy Dewey
Director: Jason Reitman
Screenwriters: Matt Bai, Jay Carson, Jason Reitman
Based on the book by: Matt Bai
Producers: Jason Reitman, Helen Estabrook, Aaron L. Gilbert
Director of photography: Eric Steelberg
Production designer: Steve Saklad
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Editor: Stefan Grube
Music: Rob Simonsen

R, 113 minutes

[hughmanity]

theplaylist.net/front-runner-hugh-jackman-review-20180901/

[jo]

May I print the PLAYLIST review by G.Ellwood for easy reference ( sometimes the online entry lapses)?

‘The Front Runner’: Hugh Jackman & An Impressive Ensemble Navigate Scandal [Telluride Review]

Gregory Ellwood September 1, 2018 8:29 am Awards Campaign, Features, Festivals, News, Reviews


TELLURIDE – It may prove bizarre and hard to believe given today’s political climate, but it wasn’t that long ago when major news outlets wouldn’t report on the private lives of political figures. A president, senator or congressman could engage in trysts and affairs without any real political consequences. Putting moral and ethical considerations to the side for a moment, it’s a legitimate question to ask when this changed. Many would say the game-changing shift began with the campaign of Sen. Gary Hart for president in 1988. What moral lines Hart crossed and how the media reacted is the subject of Jason Reitman’s latest drama “The Front Runner,” which premiered Friday night at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival.


As the race for the Democratic nomination for president began in the late ‘80s, Hart (Hugh Jackman) was the long-assumed front-runner (hence the film’s title). He had put up a significant challenge to the party’s nominee four years earlier, Walter Mondale; a battle fought all the way to the Democratic convention. Hart was also a good-looking, charismatic, relatively young and a policy wonk focused on improving the inner cities and jobs for working-class Americans. What many in the Washington media corps had heard, however, was that Hart was not that faithful to his wife. At one point in the picture, a Washington Post reporter remarks that if they took down Hart for his extracurricular hanky-panky they would have to go after half the Senate. But events would force the Post (and other top newspapers) to dip their toes into what, at the time, was considered “tabloid” journalism.


Note: If you’re unaware of this moment in history there are basic-fact “spoilers” ahead that are included in the recent trailer.


Based on Matt Bai’s novel “All The Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid”—and written by Bai along with political consultant Jay Carson and Reitman—”The Front Runner” focuses on a three-week period in ‘87 where Hart went from officially announcing his candidacy to ending his campaign after both he and his family were besieged by the press following a scandal. And, notably, like most films, it plays with real-life events somewhat even if the essence of what occurred is correct.

READ MORE: ‘The Front Runner’ Trailer: Hugh Jackman Stars In True Story Of Major Political Sex Scandal


In the film, Hart’s troubles began after a Washington Post reporter, a fictional A.J. Parker (Mamoudou Athie, very good), asks him if he and his wife (Vera Farmiga, a rock) ever experienced marriage troubles. It was public knowledge the Harts had been separated for a time, but in the movie, an offended Sen. Hart gives him the quote “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” In reality, he gave that quote to a New York Times reporter. Why Reitman and company felt the need to make it a Post reporter is quizzical, but the movie correctly notes that knowledge of the quote was used by the Miami Herald to justify tailing Hart— an exploit only tabloids magazines like the National Inquirer would have engaged in at the time. The Herald took this action after receiving an anonymous tip that a local woman, Donna Rice (Sara Paxton, fantastic), was headed to D.C. to rendezvous with the Senator. After witnessing Rice enter the Senator’s residence the Herald reporters confronted Hart about it and their reporting sparked a media tsunami around the candidate.

The events that ended Hart’s presidential ambitions are obviously prime cinematic material, but Reitman and his co-screenwriters also to consider how this infamous incident irrevocably changed American politics. After Hart, the media eventually reached a point where anything in the life of someone involved in or running for elected office was fair game. And in doing so, they helped sway public opinion and made such scrutiny acceptable in contemporary society (it’s noted in the film that 64% of Americans polled at the time thought the treatment of Hart was unfair). This thematic point is so well made you could even argue the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would side with the “this is none of your business” arguments Hart made 30 years ago. This is likely not Reitman’s intent, but it certainly makes the film much less partisan than you might have initially assumed.

Reitman chronicles this sprawling opera by taking a layered and ensemble-heavy page from legendary director Robert Altman. Yes, Jackman’s impressive portrayal of Hart is at the center of “The Front Runner” (it’s one of the best performances of his career), but Reitman uses a large cast of characters to give depth to the events in question. Beyond the aforementioned Farminga, Paxton and Athie, Jackman is surrounded by notable performers such as J.K. Simmons as his disheartened campaign manager, Alfred Molina as the editor of the Post, Ari Graynor as Post reporter Ann Devroy, Steve Zissis as an Herald reporter in over his head, Molly Ephraim as a member of the senior campaign staff sympathetic to Rice, Kevin Pollack as the editor of the Herald who eventually comes in direct conflict with Hart, and both Josh Brenner and Alex Karpovsky as campaign advisors, among others. Similarly to Mike Leigh‘s “Peterloo,” also screening at Telluride, Reitman finds moments for them all to shine.

He also employs Altman’s technique of panning across a scene without cutting and zooming in on one conversation, pulling back and then focusing on another. It’s a new ground for the “Up In The Air” director and you often wish there were more opportunities in the film for him to use it. When a scene is constructed in a conventional manner the film often lacks the same energy and stylistically feels flat. In those moments, it’s that exceptional cast that keeps you engaged even if you’re well-aware of Hart’s fate.


Obviously, context matters and the world has radically changed. The internet and social media have amplified a corrosive political atmosphere that is now hyper-partisan compared to the late ‘80s. And we now recognize that what was once considered simple philandering can lead to illegal actions tied to a host of other crimes (not to mention how the media’s role in #MeToo movement has shattered privileged social protections for serial abusers). But if an elected official and their spouse have an open arrangement should it be any business but their own? Should that even matter to the electorate at large? Is there a line where the privacy of an elected official or presidential candidate should not be crossed? “The Front Runner” is at its best when it makes you reconsider your own answers to those questions. [B/B+]

[hughmanity]

Was counting on you to reprint it! 😊

Sept 1, 2018 8:13:41 GMT -5 jo said:

May I print the PLAYLIST review by G.Ellwood for easy reference ( sometimes the online entry lapses)?

‘The Front Runner’: Hugh Jackman & An Impressive Ensemble Navigate Scandal [Telluride Review]

Gregory Ellwood September 1, 2018 8:29 am Awards Campaign, Features, Festivals, News, Reviews


TELLURIDE – It may prove bizarre and hard to believe given today’s political climate, but it wasn’t that long ago when major news outlets wouldn’t report on the private lives of political figures. A president, senator or congressman could engage in trysts and affairs without any real political consequences. Putting moral and ethical considerations to the side for a moment, it’s a legitimate question to ask when this changed. Many would say the game-changing shift began with the campaign of Sen. Gary Hart for president in 1988. What moral lines Hart crossed and how the media reacted is the subject of Jason Reitman’s latest drama “The Front Runner,” which premiered Friday night at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival.


As the race for the Democratic nomination for president began in the late ‘80s, Hart (Hugh Jackman) was the long-assumed front-runner (hence the film’s title). He had put up a significant challenge to the party’s nominee four years earlier, Walter Mondale; a battle fought all the way to the Democratic convention. Hart was also a good-looking, charismatic, relatively young and a policy wonk focused on improving the inner cities and jobs for working-class Americans. What many in the Washington media corps had heard, however, was that Hart was not that faithful to his wife. At one point in the picture, a Washington Post reporter remarks that if they took down Hart for his extracurricular hanky-panky they would have to go after half the Senate. But events would force the Post (and other top newspapers) to dip their toes into what, at the time, was considered “tabloid” journalism.


Note: If you’re unaware of this moment in history there are basic-fact “spoilers” ahead that are included in the recent trailer.


Based on Matt Bai’s novel “All The Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid”—and written by Bai along with political consultant Jay Carson and Reitman—”The Front Runner” focuses on a three-week period in ‘87 where Hart went from officially announcing his candidacy to ending his campaign after both he and his family were besieged by the press following a scandal. And, notably, like most films, it plays with real-life events somewhat even if the essence of what occurred is correct.

READ MORE: ‘The Front Runner’ Trailer: Hugh Jackman Stars In True Story Of Major Political Sex Scandal


In the film, Hart’s troubles began after a Washington Post reporter, a fictional A.J. Parker (Mamoudou Athie, very good), asks him if he and his wife (Vera Farmiga, a rock) ever experienced marriage troubles. It was public knowledge the Harts had been separated for a time, but in the movie, an offended Sen. Hart gives him the quote “Follow me around. I don’t care. I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’ll be very bored.” In reality, he gave that quote to a New York Times reporter. Why Reitman and company felt the need to make it a Post reporter is quizzical, but the movie correctly notes that knowledge of the quote was used by the Miami Herald to justify tailing Hart— an exploit only tabloids magazines like the National Inquirer would have engaged in at the time. The Herald took this action after receiving an anonymous tip that a local woman, Donna Rice (Sara Paxton, fantastic), was headed to D.C. to rendezvous with the Senator. After witnessing Rice enter the Senator’s residence the Herald reporters confronted Hart about it and their reporting sparked a media tsunami around the candidate.

The events that ended Hart’s presidential ambitions are obviously prime cinematic material, but Reitman and his co-screenwriters also to consider how this infamous incident irrevocably changed American politics. After Hart, the media eventually reached a point where anything in the life of someone involved in or running for elected office was fair game. And in doing so, they helped sway public opinion and made such scrutiny acceptable in contemporary society (it’s noted in the film that 64% of Americans polled at the time thought the treatment of Hart was unfair). This thematic point is so well made you could even argue the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would side with the “this is none of your business” arguments Hart made 30 years ago. This is likely not Reitman’s intent, but it certainly makes the film much less partisan than you might have initially assumed.

Reitman chronicles this sprawling opera by taking a layered and ensemble-heavy page from legendary director Robert Altman. Yes, Jackman’s impressive portrayal of Hart is at the center of “The Front Runner” (it’s one of the best performances of his career), but Reitman uses a large cast of characters to give depth to the events in question. Beyond the aforementioned Farminga, Paxton and Athie, Jackman is surrounded by notable performers such as J.K. Simmons as his disheartened campaign manager, Alfred Molina as the editor of the Post, Ari Graynor as Post reporter Ann Devroy, Steve Zissis as an Herald reporter in over his head, Molly Ephraim as a member of the senior campaign staff sympathetic to Rice, Kevin Pollack as the editor of the Herald who eventually comes in direct conflict with Hart, and both Josh Brenner and Alex Karpovsky as campaign advisors, among others. Similarly to Mike Leigh‘s “Peterloo,” also screening at Telluride, Reitman finds moments for them all to shine.

He also employs Altman’s technique of panning across a scene without cutting and zooming in on one conversation, pulling back and then focusing on another. It’s a new ground for the “Up In The Air” director and you often wish there were more opportunities in the film for him to use it. When a scene is constructed in a conventional manner the film often lacks the same energy and stylistically feels flat. In those moments, it’s that exceptional cast that keeps you engaged even if you’re well-aware of Hart’s fate.


Obviously, context matters and the world has radically changed. The internet and social media have amplified a corrosive political atmosphere that is now hyper-partisan compared to the late ‘80s. And we now recognize that what was once considered simple philandering can lead to illegal actions tied to a host of other crimes (not to mention how the media’s role in #MeToo movement has shattered privileged social protections for serial abusers). But if an elected official and their spouse have an open arrangement should it be any business but their own? Should that even matter to the electorate at large? Is there a line where the privacy of an elected official or presidential candidate should not be crossed? “The Front Runner” is at its best when it makes you reconsider your own answers to those questions. [B/B+]

[jo]

Not great grade for the movie but great assessment of Jackman outstanding performance!

www.indiewire.com/2018/09/the-front-runner-review-hugh-jackman-gary-hart-1201999703/

‘The Front Runner’ Review: Hugh Jackman Is Perfectly Cast as a Man Who Would Have Been President — Telluride
Hugh Jackman is perfect as Gary Hart, the Senator who probably would have been President if he'd stopped screwing around.

David Ehrlich
47 mins ago
@davidehrlich


“The Front Runner”

Before Anthony Weiner accidentally tweeted a picture of his bulging groin, and before Bill Clinton “did not have sexual relations with that woman,” there was Colorado Senator Gary Hart, who torpedoed his very credible shot at the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Like Weiner and Clinton (but more charismatic than both of them combined), Hart was a passionate statesman motivated by a genuine desire to better the lives of his constituents. And, like Weiner and Clinton, none of that seemed to matter from the moment Hart was caught with his pants around his ankles.


Judging by Jason Reitman’s lucid but lifeless attempt to dramatize the final weeks of his campaign, Hart’s scandal was the beginning of the end for political discourse in this country. The film takes that fact for granted. The twin questions that drive “The Front Runner” from its Altman-esque first shot to its whimper of an ending are more complex and open-ended than that: To what degree was the fallout Hart’s fault, and what role do the media (and the American people) play in the supposed degradation of our national priorities?


In Reitman’s hands — which are confident and clumsy in equal measure — these hefty matters play out as a mordant political comedy that tries to split the difference between “Veep” and “All the President’s Men.” That’s a tough needle to thread, and it doesn’t take long before “The Front Runner” throws in the towel on that idea. After an energetic and character-driven first act, the movie dulls into a talky civics debate that flattens every member of its massive cast into lame totems for the respective ideas each of them is meant to represent.

We meet virtually all of them in the film’s opening long-take, a clever bit of camerawork that bottles the density and business of “Nashville” and uncorks it all over the 1984 Democratic National Conversation. Floating from the inside of a television news van to Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman), to a gaggle of frantic campaign staffers (“Girls” alum Alex Karpovsky and “Silicon Valley” actor Josh Brener among them), and eventually back to the candidate as he concedes the race and sets himself up for ’88, the setup quickly binds the press and the politician together like oil and water swirling down the same drain.

‘The Front Runner”
Columbia Pictures/YouTube

From there, a flurry of overlapping dialogue introduces us to campaign manager Bill Dixon (a blustery J.K. Simmons), an editor at the Washington Post (an underused Alfred Molina), and his most impressive young reporter (emerging talent Mamoudou Athie). Then, of course, there’s Hart’s long-suffering wife (Vera Farmiga) and his teenage daughter (Kaitlyn Dever), the latter of whom is written into the movie just so her sexual orientation can inspire a humanizing scene with her father. It’s rare to see a film with so many people and so few compelling characters, but Reitman’s script — co-written with Matt Bai and Jay Carson — does a solid, clockwork-like job of organizing them all into place. At the very least, this is a story that Bai knows inside and out, as “The Front Runner” is based on his 2014 book: “All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid.”


And oh, do they go tabloid. But, before they can do that, we get a chance to spend a little bit of time with Hart at the height of his power, and these passages can be electric. Is there any actor in the world who’s better than Jackman at negotiating irrepressible charm with sinister undercurrents of ambition and power? Often looking like more of a lumberjack than a politician (he even throws an axe at a campaign stop), Jackman’s Hart is infected with the same dreamer’s disease that proved incurable for his P.T. Barnum. But those glowing eyes, and their unkept promise for America’s next great adventure, are undercut with a simmering rage at the idea that anyone would dare to ask Hart about his personal life.


The presidential candidate was slow to learn something that other celebrities, like the name-checked Warren Beatty, had already accepted: Private lives were no longer possible for public figures. A lesser actor may leave us feeling like Hart is just getting haughty because he doesn’t want his affairs to come to light. But Jackman’s layered and richly shadowed performance allows for a more compelling (and perversely dignified) interpretation: Hart is upset when reporters ask him such questions because he believes that the marital issues between two people are not the business of the American public. It’s almost secondary to him that such practices would expose his adultery. Despite more than three decades of marriage, Hart believes more in the sanctity of political discourse than he does in the sanctity of his own vows.
So far as Hart’s concerned, what he does with his dick is his business, and his wife is the only of the 300 million people in this country who’s capable of forgiving him. So it’s the press who initially emerge as the bad guys. “Togetherness” breakout Steve Zissis plays a thirsty Miami Herald reporter who’s so desperate for a “good” story that he follows a woman to Washington D.C. and stakes out Hart’s townhouse until the Senator falls into his trap. A scandal is born.




As Hart begins to slip in the polls, “The Front Runner” disengages from the details of Jackman’s performance — and completely divorces itself from whatever’s happening in Hart’s relationship with his wife — as the film instead forfeits itself to a series of remedial debates about what matters to the American people. The film is broadly sympathetic of Hart’s situation; it doesn’t absolve him of being a shitty husband, but it side-eyes the press for whipping the story into a national firestorm. At one point, a member of Hart’s team gets on the phone with a reporter and screams: “Do your editors a favor and remind them that they run The New York fucking Times, and not Us Weekly!” It doesn’t do the fourth estate any favors that the Miami Herald reporters who bust this thing wide open have less in common with Woodward and Bernstein than they do with the Keystone Cops (one of them is played by comedian Bill Burr).



The only counterbalance to that argument comes from the small gaggle of women characters, most of whom are burdened with the casual misogyny of having to be the film’s conscience. Towards the end, when Reitman and co. are leaning pretty hard on the idea that a shitty husband could make a great President, a female journalist sticks a dagger in him that resonates to the present day: “Hart is a man with power and opportunity.” And the idea that he’s abused both of those things in his private life doesn’t bode well for a life in the White House — it’s something, she feels, that Americans ought to know about before they head to the polls. It doesn’t do Hart any favors that he essentially aligns himself with Trump, in that neither one of them wanted the press to be allowed within 100 yards of their private lives. The only difference there is that Hart refused to lie about it, either to his wife or his constituents.

Of course, the question of whether or not Hart’s affairs should be relevant is rendered moot by the fact that they are, or have been made to be. Perhaps even our most storied journalistic institutions have been guilty of giving readers what they want at the expense of focusing them on what they need to know. When this limp but well-intentioned comedy comes to its sad conclusion, there’s no doubt that politics have gone tabloid. The great tragedy of “The Front Runner” is that now — in a discourse ruled by Russian interference, child imprisonment, and the flares of White Nationalism — we’d give anything for them to go tabloid again.


Grade: C


“The Front Runner” premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival. Columbia Pictures will release it in theaters on November 7.

[jo]

Anne Thompson underscores the rave over the Jackman portrayal in THE FRONT RUNNER, via the review from INDIEWIRE ( of which Anne is a co-editor) --

[jo]

[jo]

Jeffrey Wells of HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE thinks very highly of THE FRONT RUNNER!

Telluride Triumphs for Chazelle, Reitman
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Last night I saw Damien Chazelle‘s First Man at 7pm, followed by Jason Reitman‘s The Front Runner at 10 pm. Both were (and probably still are) wowser thumbs-up immersions, but I have to say that Reitman’s film delivered a slightly bigger jolt in that I wasn’t sure how it would play (it’s a sharp, highly believable, exacting, well-acted, tip-top adult thing in all respects) whereas Chazelle’s film had been praised to the heavens in Venice. I therefore knew First Man would be dealing strong cards, but it was quite the surprise to realize by midnight that both films are heavy hitters.

The Front Runner is an exacting, brilliantly captured political tragedy, and easily Reitman’s best since Up In The Air. Yes, it’s a Reitman comeback movie, and very good for him. The 40 year old director totally knocked it out of the park with Thank You For Smoking, Juno and Up In The Air but then seemed to lose that special touch over the last nine years. Now it’s returned.


The Front Runner reminded me at times of Michael Ritchie‘s The Candidate and sometimes surpassing that 1972 political drama in terms of believable campaign minutiae and a general drill-bit focus on the hundreds of little docudrama-like details that convince, divert and persuade. It also reminded me a bit of James Vanderbilt‘s Truth, a first-rate politics-and-journalism film that was unfairly given the bum’s rush.


Hugh Jackman is totally first-rate as 1988 presidential contender Gary Hart — the ’80s liberal superstar in the Kennedy mold whom everyone angrily turned on at when his campaign totally fell apart over a brief, sloppily-arranged affair with a well-educated wannabe campaign worker Donna Rice. (She’s 60 now!)

But the screenplay, based on Matt Bai‘s “All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid” and co-written by Bai, Reitman and Jay Carson, portrays Hart in much more sympathetic terms — a guy who sadly screwed himself out of a shot at the White House over a mere dalliance but who had a real point when he argued that the media’s National Enquirer-like fixation on a sexual side issue that meant nothing and was nobody’s business to begin with was by far the greater mistake or misstep. Jackman makes you feel the rage about this.

The Hart-Rice affair was uncovered by Miami Herald reporters. Yesterday a friend from the Herald wrote to ask if the film identifies them chapter and verse, and I responded as follows: “The Miami Herald is completely and fully identified and the relationship between the Herald and Gary Hart is depicted as deeply antagonistic, especially on the Herald’s part. Kevin Pollack plays publisher Bob Martindale and Steve Zissis plays Tom Fiedler, one of the Herald reporters who chased the story. The Herald effort comes off as dogged but ultimately sleazy. This is not a positive portrait of the Herald or the press in general...

[jo]

Awards Circuit ( Mark Johnson ) is not impressed with neither the film nor Hugh Jackman's portrayal.

www.awardscircuit.com/2018/09/01/telluride-review-the-front-runner-doesnt-live-up-to-its-name/

[jo]

Sasha Stone's detailed review of THE FRONT RUNNER for THE WRAP --

www.thewrap.com/the-front-runner-film-review/

‘The Front Runner’ Film Review: Politics, Sex and Media Collide in Hugh Jackman Drama


Telluride Film Festival: Jason Reitman’s second film of 2018 offers a wild ride through Gary Hart’s tumultuous 1988 presidential campaign

Sasha Stone | September 1, 2018 @ 8:48 AM
Last Updated: September 1, 2018 @ 8:49 AM


For all of its modern technology and progress, America has continued to live in the clutches of its puritanical roots when it comes to sex. When a sex scandal is thrown our way we can’t not look. Nothing can grab attention quicker, nothing can keep our attention longer. That is how we live now.

It wasn’t always that way, at least where political leaders were concerned. Jason Reitman’s new film, “The Front Runner,” which had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, ponders the question whether politicians owe us transparency in their personal lives. And it also asks, in public life, is anything personal?

Hugh Jackman plays Gary Hart, the leading candidate for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. Early in the primaries he was polling ahead of certain Republican nominee George H. W. Bush, who was running on fumes from Ronald Reagan’s two terms, during which Bush served as vice president.

Also Read:
'The Front Runner' Trailer: Hugh Jackman Faces Political Scandal as Gary Hart (Video)

Hart had so much to say, much of it left over from George McGovern’s ill-fated 1972 campaign, which Hart helped to lead. He had energy behind his campaign, and it all was going so well until it wasn’t.

The Miami Herald was given a tip that Gary Hart was having an affair with a campaign aide named Donna Rice. Reporters staked out Hart’s home to gather “proof” of this affair and eventually went public with it, creating a firestorm. Hart genuinely seemed to believe it was just smoke with no fire, that nothing would ever derail someone with such good intentions.

“Follow me around,” he famously taunted, “If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.”

Bored is the last thing they turned out to be as the public ate up the scandal like candy. It was too much to resist. And just like that, it was over for Gary Hart and any of the people in America he might have been able to help, or any of the ways he might have forever altered the future of this country.


There was a time when the public thought personal lives should remain personal. After all, everyone knew that FDR had an affair, and that JFK was a famous womanizer. The public never condemned him for it – instead, he remains among the most beloved US presidents in history. And even after Gary Hart, Bill Clinton won the presidency and served two terms with several women coming forward to reveal their affairs with him.


So why was Hart different? Why did an affair with Donna Rice so successfully derail his campaign?

The co-writer of the screenplay, and author of “All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid,” Matt Bai, believes it was several forces at once, including the high aim of breaking big Watergate-like news a la Woodward and Bernstein. Of course, shadowing Gary Hart and trying to catch him with his girlfriend was a far cry from ferreting out a corrupt President Nixon.

But it’s also the way the news media began to change with the rise of tabloids during the 1980s. There was a thirst for ongoing scandals, not to mention how the women involved often made careers for themselves off the publicity. Maybe derailing Hart helped pave the way for Bill Clinton’s infidelities to be so urgently shunted to the side. Now, of course, we know there is no way the public could or would tolerate it from either man.


“The Front Runner” is about how things changed, why they changed and how quickly nothing seemed to matter. Hugh Jackman plays Hart as a rock that begins to crumble, though we never see him completely fall apart. That is left to the women in his life – mainly his wife, played by Vera Farmiga.


Reitman does not back off of Hart’s arrogance, nor does he try to excuse Hart’s actions. He presents a story. It’s then up to us, the viewers, to render judgment. Was it worth it? Did the press and the public do the right thing in obliterating his candidacy, making way for surefire loser Michael Dukakis?


Ultimately, for this viewer anyway, it’s hard to watch “The Front Runner” and not wish for a different outcome for Gary Hart, for his wife, and even for Donna Rice. And that’s not to mention his campaign staffers, who are mortified both to be have been caught unaware with no way to do damage control and because Hart began to appear as a kind of a hypocrite – preaching about integrity but then lying to his staff and the public.


But the film steers clear of giving us an easy moral outcome. It neither shames Hart nor redeems him.

Reitman has made two films this year, the first being “Tully,” with Charlize Theron beating back postpartum depression. The two could not be more different. Though the director is known for taking risks and sometimes failing, pulling off these two very different films in the same year is be applauded.

Reitman is more in his element with “The Front Runner,” especially in the film’s first half, as we dive into what politics was like in 1988. The film has to manage disparate elements in its second half, like the Harts’ strained marriage due consideration alongside the political turmoil.

To its credit, “The Front Runner” doesn’t send us out the door with any easy solutions. It doesn’t tell us how we should feel or pretend to know all the answers. For some, that might be frustrating, but “The Front Runner” delivers more than enough provocative material to make it a wild, occasionally hopeful, often depressing ride.

[mamaleh]

It sounds to me that Mark Johnson went into the screening with preconceived negative notions and that’s the prism through which he viewed the film and the lead actors, despite his protestations of being a “fan.” Let’s hope his is the lone thumbs-down opinion of HJ’s performance.

Ellen

[hughmanity]

Well it is also telling that he didn't like Farmiga's performance either, when others are raving about her.

Sept 1, 2018 14:25:18 GMT -5 mamaleh said:

It sounds to me that Mark Johnson went into the screening with preconceived negative notions and that’s the prism through which he viewed the film and the lead actors, despite his protestations of being a “fan.” Let’s hope his is the lone thumbs-down opinion of HJ’s performance.

Ellen

[jo]

Worry not ( too much) - Ellen and Hughmanity

LOL!

The movie press ( the known and famous ones, not the Mark Johnsons - never heard) seems to be very much in on the campaign for acting honors for Hugh and Vera!


Just like this full article from Scott Feinberg of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER -- I may be biased in my delight but for one of the prime trade paper ( Hollywood Reporter) to have published a sole article on the honors chances of the movie and its primary cast at this time -- that sounds like a campaign in itself!

www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/telluride-hugh-jackman-angles-second-oscar-nomination-front-runner-1139194

September 01, 2018 10:32am PT by Scott Feinberg
Telluride: Hugh Jackman Angles for Second Oscar Nomination With 'The Front Runner'



The drama about the political downfall of Gary Hart could also bring Vera Farmiga — who plays Hart's wife — her second nom for a Jason Reitman film, following 2009's 'Up in the Air.'

The Front Runner, a drama about the implosion of Democratic politician Gary Hart's 1988 presidential campaign due to a sex scandal, was warmly received at its Telluride Film Festival world premiere late Friday evening at the Herzog Theatre.

Starring Hugh Jackman as Hart, the latest film from writer/director Jason Reitman will be released on Nov. 7 by Sony, which would love for it to follow in the footsteps of two prior Reitman films, 2007's Juno and 2009's Up in the Air, that were unveiled at Telluride and went on to best picture Oscar nominations.

The Front Runner is Reitman's most awards-friendly effort since those earlier productions, but, it still seems to me that it will face real challenges as it enters Hollywood's own best picture primary in hopes of securing a nomination. More plausible, but also far from assured, are noms for lead actor Jackman (an Oscar nominee for 2012's Les Miserables), who handles himself well in a more traditionally dramatic role than we usually see him play, and supporting actress Vera Farmiga (an Oscar nominee for Up in the Air), who plays Hart's wife of many years, and elevates everything she's a part of.

Reitman has always been great at casting strong character actors in his films, and this one proves to be no exception. It has been called "Altman-esque" by some because of the sheer number of actors who have speaking roles in it. Fortunately, among them are first-rate, repeat Reitman collaborators J.K. Simmons and Kaitlyn Dever. Unfortunately, as was the case with another political film with a large ensemble, 2006's Bobby, only a few of them — including comedians Bill Burr and Kevin Pollak — have anything substantial to do.

Adapted by Matt Bai, Jay Carson and Reitman from Bai's 2014 book All the Truth Is Out, The Front Runner chronicles how Hart's looks and charm helped to catapult him to the head of the pack of Democratic presidential contenders in 1988. It also dissects how his wandering eye and naivete about the increasing tabloidization of political coverage nixed his prospects just three weeks into his campaign.

There are certainly factors that may hinder the film's prospects with awards voters. For one thing, Jackman, while dashingly handsome and endlessly charming, as demanded by the part, looks nothing like Hart did 30 years ago. For another, it's strange that the photo most associated with Hart's downfall (of a woman sitting on his lap), or at least a recreation of it, is nowhere to be seen in the film.


The best thing the film has going for it is its timing.


People too young to remember Hart, but old enough to be familiar with the rise of Donald Trump, will have a hard time imagining that being — or being labeled — a "womanizer" (after a consensual affair, no less) could bring down a presidential candidate. But, sure enough, that's what happened. And, as the film suggests, the Hart "scandal" represented a marked change in the way the media covers politicians, from which there can be no return — even if, in the Trump era, it often seems like even truly indefensible actions have no consequences.

One the 2 points which he says could hinder the potential acting honors for Hugh --

*he does not look like Gary Hart -- if most people who see the movie do not even know Gary Hart ( since this happened 30 years ago)- assuming we are referring to the age of the SAG sector of the AMPAS and audiences in general hews closer to the desired demos ( 18-49?), I wouldn't put that much into that factor.


*the absence of the infamous photo of Rice sitting on Hart's lap in the MONKEY BUSINESS pose -- they did pose for that photo in real life, with real smiles on their faces -- could that have been just one gag photo ( given the name of the boat)?

Besides, it was never proven that there was an actual affair although that seems to be the general conclusion ( I have not finished the book but I was quite surprised to read close to the beginning that Hart and his wife had actually separated a few times and that he may have had a reputation then for having an eye for the ladies). If the lack of the photo diminishes the lack of realism in the movie -- that is nothing compared to the controversy generated by the lack of the USA flag-planting scene in the Neil Armstrong movie (FIRST MAN) for which official explanations and apologies were given ( as there were calls to boycott the movie).

Did Feinberg point these 2 factors out so he would not be accused of openly supporting the Jackman acting honors chances

And when the movie is released right after Election Day ( with wide release in the coming Thanksgiving weekend) --the conversation will likely rachet up. I point the decision to release the movies on those dates as due to the might of a major studio ( SONY) -- I doubt that if this were only an indie release that it would get such prominent attention due to the timing of the movie release.

The thing is -- HUGH JACKMAN is definitely "in the conversation"!


Besides, there seems to be the added idea that Jackman is now " due " for an Oscar for some key career portrayals that were overlooked!


Jo

[jo]

LOL - I tell ya -- there is another campaign ( other than the fallen Hart campaign for the presidency) that may be going on. This time, another influential movie media outlet ( and also purveyor of news and other interesting phenomena on the cultural scene), VANITY FAIR, does a great interview with Hugh Jackman and Jason Reitman!

It brings better light on the motivations for doing the movie and how it has impacted on their perspectives. It also gives Hugh a chance to talk about the issue of fame on himself ( as that was a key issue on the downfall of Hart, the infamy he faced with the scandal and the loss of his ambitions).

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/front-runner-interview

Telluride Film Festival

Hugh Jackman and Jason Reitman Tackle Politics, Sex, and the Press in the Timely The Front Runner

At the Telluride Film Festival, Jackman and Reitman talk about the week in 1987 that changed politics and journalism forever.


Leave it to an Australian and a Canadian to make the fall movie that has the most to say about American politics in 2018. The Front Runner, Jason Reitman’s Altmanesque treatment of the sex scandal that torpedoed Gary Hart’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday. The political drama stars Hugh Jackman as the charismatic senator, whose campaign was ended by the revelation of his affair with Donna Rice—a turning point in the relationship between the press and political figures. Based on journalist Matt Bai’s 2015 book, All the Truth is Out, from a screenplay by Reitman, Bai, and former Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign press secretary Jay Carson, the movie centers on three weeks in the spring of 1987, when an anonymous tip that Hart was having an affair landed in the lap of a reporter at the The Miami Herald.

The morning after their premiere, Jackman and Reitman spoke about the film's contemporary relevance, getting to the heart of an enigmatic figure like Hart, and how Jackman grapples with life as a public figure.


Vanity Fair: Where were each of you in 1987 when the events of this movie were taking place?

Hugh Jackman: I was on a gap year traveling around Europe on £10 a day. I vaguely remember stuff about it, but not much. I’m an Aussie, so it was a passing interest.

Jason Reitman: I was in fifth grade. My favorite movies were Predator and Commando. I had no sense of what was happening. When I heard the Radiolab piece based on Matt Bai’s book on Gary Hart, it was a revelation. How did this ever happen? How did the next president of the United States wind up in a dark alley with three journalists in the middle of the night where no one knew what to do? It’s relevant to everything that’s happening in 2018. It immediately struck me. But it was all new information.

Jackman: When I read the script I knew nothing about it. It’s so easy to look at Watergate or these big moments in American political history. This in history could be a blip, could go unnoticed. But it’s actually a massive turning point in terms of the media and politics and how things shifted.

Reitman: Every character doesn’t exactly know how to operate with that little amount of time and that much pressure. What we tried to do is show empathy for each side as they were trying to figure that out.


Hugh, since you knew so little about this moment, what drew you into the script?

Jackman: As an actor, it was a gift, a nerve-wracking gift where a filmmaker is deliberately asking you as an audience to work to actually think to answer questions yourself. Things aren’t all tied up. The story is very much about what questions should we be asking. Why are we interested in that? Gary Hart’s question at the end, which I love is, “Some things in life are interesting. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re important.” As a filmmaker, Jason never ever presumed to decide what is important. It must be tempting to go, “This is important. Cue the music.”

Reitman: Honestly, I just don’t know.

Jackman: You never fall into that. As an actor there were times when I fell into that and I remember you pulling me up and saying, “Don’t load it, let the audience load it.” That was something I’d never had the challenge of playing before, someone so enigmatic.


Since nobody around him at the time seemed to be able to, Hugh, how did you get in Gary Hart’s head?

Jackman: I did a lot of research. I met Gary. I have great respect for him and we’ve become friends... He’s mysterious. He’s enigmatic even to people who’ve spent years with him, his family, campaign members. Capturing that is the most terrifying thing. As an actor you’re trained to make choices, know their objective, know their motivation, know their super objective. What am I going for in this scene? Of course you still do all that work, but it was very hard to define for someone like Gary. And that is what was so brilliant and frustrating about him for people who worked with him, people who covered him, people who followed him. There is not one consensus on who that man is. I was very nervous the moment I met him. He picked me up at the airport and he shook my hand and he put his hand on my cheek and it really surprised me. Just when you think it’s gonna be this, it’s something else, and that’s fascinating to play.


As much as you resist giving any easy answers in this film, Jason, it’s irresistible to draw parallels to what’s unfolding in American life today. What kind of conversations do you want audiences to have when they walk out of the theater?

Reitman: All of them. It’s hard right now in 2018 to talk about what’s happening... we tend to tear each other apart. Our conversations become fights very quickly. Matt Bai in his book uses 1987 as a prism for now. What’s unique about the story is it allows conversation about 10 different things through a dozen different points of view. Our relationship with journalism, our desire to know things and where does that line stop, the gray area of morality, what we need to know about our leaders, gender politics, the complexities of being a journalist and knowing what you’re supposed to cover and when you’re supposed to fill a reader’s demands. The thrill is hearing people really get into it.


Hugh, as a public figure yourself, how do you feel about how the press are navigating this issue of privacy versus an audience’s desire to know? We’re all still playing out this dance that this movie illustrates the beginning of.

Jackman: I have an innate empathy for journalists, being a journalism major and sort of backing away from that career when I was doing my final class, which was ethics in journalism... I was like, I don’t know if I have the heart for this, the strength for it. From the journalist’s side, making a living is getting harder and harder, what you’re being asked to ask of interviews is difficult. From the side of someone’s who’s a public figure, I never forget that that’s a choice, a choice I make willingly. I battle with it in terms of how it impacts my family. My wife, as an actor, that’s something we went into with our eyes open. But my children had no choice, and that is something I grapple with every single day. I have one kid who hates it and one who kind of likes it, and both worry me. Gary found it difficult to talk about himself. He didn’t like it. It could be a generational thing. My father was a little the same. I don’t have that problem. For me the reason I act is about understanding why we’re here, human behavior. Me as a public figure I wear quite easily, but Gary didn’t. And he also found it difficult as a principle. If I do the photo for People magazine, what next, a swimsuit competition? Where does it stop?
.

[jo]

www.slashfilm.com/the-front-runner-reviews/

It's mostly quoting previously referred to reviews here --

‘The Front Runner’ Early Buzz: Hugh Jackman is Oscar Worthy in Robert Altman-esque Political Drama
Posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2018 by Ethan Anderton

The early buzz for The Front Runner sounds mostly good so far. There are some negative reactions who aren’t all that impressed with the movie, but it seems like Hugh Jackman is at least being universally praised for his performance, even if some think it’s not enough to make the movie more compelling. Even so, this sounds like a timely and relevant movie for our currently political climate, especially with the #MeToo movement happening at the same time.

[jo]

Now its's Deadline's Awards Columnist Pete Hammond who is singing the hosannas for THE FRONT RUNNER and HUGH JACKMAN!

It's beginning to sound like a finely-tuned orchestra


deadline.com/2018/09/the-front-runner-oscar-worthy-hugh-jackman-1202455982/

‘The Front Runner’ Brings Political Scandal And An Oscar Worthy Performance From Hugh Jackman In Telluride Film Festival World Premiere
September 2, 2018 - Leave a Comment



There are plenty of films on display here at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend with strong political connections such as documentaries like Charles Ferguson’s multi-part Watergate- Or How We Learned To Stop An Out-of-Control President (any similarity to present day is clearly intentional); Ed Zwick’s Trial By Fire which strongly advocates for changes in the Texas criminal justice system and is a movie former Governor and current Trump cabinet secretary Rick Perry will not pleased with; Reversing Roe (an argument against politicizing abortion); and even Universal’s Neil Armstrong film, First Man which caused an absurdly ridiculous dust-up on the internet (from Marco Rubio among others who haven’t seen it) that it was not paying proper respect to the planting of the American flag on the moon. The latter is truly an absurd, politically motivated charge for a superb film from director Damien Chazelle that, otherwise , successfully touched ground on the mountain here coming straight from its triumph in Venice. I can’t think of another movie that truly makes you prouder to be an American than this one, and it does it in ways that are entirely not jingoistic at all.


However the most overtly political movie at the SHOW this year is also one of its most entertaining – and potentially commercial selections. Director Jason Reitman returns to Telluride for the fourth time with The Front Runner, the story of how a sexual scandal became a media sensation that doomed the surefire 1988 Presidential candidacy of Democratic Senator Gary Hart only a few weeks after he announced and was deemed the instant front runner to beat then VP George Bush. It is a story that really hits home since Hart was the Senator from Colorado and announced his candidacy here three decades before this smart and pointedly sharp film would debut in the very same Rockies. Hart , now 81, still lives in the state, and Reitman tells me Hart and his wife Lee actually saw the film a couple of days ago. Scheduled to open November 21st, Hugh Jackman is simply superb and captures the essence of Hart in a remarkable performance as the Senator who got caught up in a tabloid political scandal , accused of having clandestine encounters with a young woman named Donna Rice which he vehemently denies but refused to talk about, preferring instead to stick to the issues. This was just before the dam burst on exposing the private lives of our leaders and, thirty years later, has much to say about where it has all led to in the current state of affairs, so to speak. Hart believed his private life was exactly that, private, and that was his downfall. The media culture was changing big time and he got caught up in it.



Reitman enlisted two political pros to write the script with him, including Matt Bai, author of the book on which it is based, and former Hillary Clinton press secretary Jay Carson. In an interview here in Telluride this morning after last night’s World Premiere, I spoke to Reitman and Jackman about the experience of making this film in this climate. Reitman pointed to an Oscar winning 1972 film as the blueprint for what he and his writers wanted to bring to the Hart story. “The Candidate was the film all of us would watch. We all sat and watched it and kind of examined the way into that movie, the way so often in that film the most important things are happening in the background, and the most innocuous things in the foreground , and the way the movie is kind of pushing you as a viewer to find out what is important as you follow the screen. It was also the enigma of the performance at the center of it and how we are supposed to feel about this candidate that became a big conversation for us for Gary Hart who is kind of an enigma himself,” said Reitman.


For Jackman , who never before has played a real person still residing on the planet, it meant a special effort. “Obviously I met Gary. I have never played someone who is alive. I have played real life characters who are no longer with us, but it felt like a massive responsibility and that’s not just lip service . I felt that and I was nervous about it right up until probably last night (when the film first screened),” he said. “When you get to know someone , their family and their life, it takes on a whole new level of importance and we did a lot of research about the time, the events , his upbringing, a lot of video. I watched a lot of video. The biggest challenge was he is an enigma in the true sense of the word. As an actor all our training is about understanding character, understanding every motivation, and making clear choices. When you are playing a character where the overall effect is so mercurial, and mysterious, and enigmatic it’s a real challenge to play because you have to give a lot of faith to the process, the director, the script. I felt it was a journey I loved going on and working with Jason was just phenomenal. The short answer is it took a lot of work.”

Reitman mentions that at the center of this film was a complicated hero, a brilliant man , more interested in the issues ,who was compromised by his inability to deal with a personal crisis . “It gives you complicated feelings. It has a complicated hero at the center of it. The heroes in my films have been literally a tobacco lobbyist (Thank You For Smoking), a pregnant teenage girl (Juno), a guy who fires people for a living and tries to ruin a marriage (Up In The Air). These are my X Men , my DC superheroes. But the filmmaking approach ( for Front Runner) was different. We wanted this to feel as real as possible , we wanted this to feel as alive as possible, we wanted the narrative to feel untraditional.,” Reitman explained, while also pointing out the voice of women became a significant part of the screenplay’s puzzle.


“This is a film that has a dozen points of views. This is a 1987 prism that allows us to explore a variety of subjects of 2018 and one in particular is gender politics. And there is no one point of view on the Gary Hart scandal and I presume people will watch it and get in very heated conversations, particularly 2018 types of conversations as they try to figure out what is right and what is wrong here because it is not clear, and it was very important from moment one to have strong female voices,” he said noting that his producing partner Helen Estabrook was key in urging him to include those voices. Vera Farmiga is excellent as Lee Hart , and there is a terrific supporting cast.

Interestingly it was the picture of Hart with Donna Rice on his lap on a boat called Monkey Business that most people now associate with that scandal, but the photo is not in the movie. At Saturday afternoon’s raucously well-received screening Reitman made it a point to tell the audience not to expect it in the movie because in reality that photo didn’t even surface until months after the events of the film and Hart’s withdrawal from the race.

As for Hart and his wife’s (they are still married ) opinion of the film, Reitman says he thinks it would only be appropiate coming from them. He did say Rice has also seen it. “She was knocked out by the performances (Sara Paxton is excellent playing her) and just could not believe how well Hugh did as Gary Hart. And more importantly she was moved by the compassion for her as a character, which is something I think she has been searching for for decades, ” he said of her reaction.



This is Jackman’s first visit to the Telluride Film Festival but he told me it won’t be his last. “I love Telluride. Immediately you feel an energy like nowhere else. It is simultaneously a celebration of film, while at the same time very relaxed and very chilled. It is a great honor. I didn’t realize how few films are selected to be here. I didn’t realize how short the festival was and it’s this crucible of film lovers, great films, beautiful location . It’s amazing . I could find myself coming back every year,” he said.


I asked Jackman if being a celebrity in this day and age means giving up your privacy, and if he could imagine going through what Hart did. “I feel privacy is possible. I never went through any crucible like Gary Hart went through. I thank my lucky stars every day that I was happily married and still happily married before anything happened. I was also 30 when any kind of fame came to me. And some of those happenstances I am grateful for to this day and thank God I wasn’t 16, ” he laughed. “I do think it’s possible. It is never lost on me the opportunities that I have, and my children ask me these questions ‘if you knew you were gonna be famous would you still do it?’ , and I say ‘I knew I wanted to be an actor. I never wanted to be famous’ and I am so blessed to work with people like Jason , with actors like those in the film. I say treat fame like it was a traffic jam, so if someone gave you a beautiful car to drive and said every now and again the traffic’s gonna be pretty bad, you might get frustrated, but you’d still take the car. And so I take the path of least resistance and generally it has not been an issue.”

[jo]

From the Chief Critic of VANITY FAIR --

To which the tweet got these 2 replies --

Joe Reid
@joereid
·
3h


Replying to
@rilaws
This is exactly what I was hoping.

*************************************


josh
@joshc
·
7h

Replying to
@rilaws
The mid-credits song-and-dance number to “Morals and Peace” really put a nice bow on it.

[jo]

Sept 1, 2018 10:22:25 GMT -5 jo said:

"Revelatory discovery"? I wonder what the movie press was expecting?


That media did its duty of responsible reporting...and did not change character in its public reporting perspective?


That new facts would be uncovered that would add further intrigue to the story of 30 years ago?


It seems that the story that Jason Reitman was trying to tell is the transition of the character of media reporting and that it reached the fork in the road in those days before, during, and after the scandal. And that he wanted to examine the sides of both parties involved. It is also an intriguing issue to know how current media views the perspective of the changing media then. Can they be objective in assessing the stance taken by the media then? Or defensive? I think that is actually the debate issue that is one of the key subjects of the movie.


Jo

[jo]

EW is not impressed either with the movie or even Hugh Jackman's portrayal --

ew.com/movies/2018/09/02/front-runner-telluride-review-hugh-jackman/?utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=D50E60F4-AEBF-11E8-BBC3-72A64744363C


Btw, the same critic ( C. Nashawaty) gave LOGAN a "B-" rating, just one rung higher than the "C+" rating for THE FRONT RUNNER.

[jo]

splashreport.com/telluride-film-review-front-runner/

[jo]

Variety gives THE FRONT RUNNER a mixed review --

variety.com/2018/film/reviews/the-front-runner-review-hugh-jackman-1202924916/

[hughmanity]

This is a very positive review, which Jo may have to reprint. 😉  However, the reviewer also laments that he doesn't see the film becoming the next SPOTLIGHT or THE POST.

weliveentertainment.com/welivefilm/front-runner-review-hugh-jackman-becomes-gary-hart/

[carouselkathy]

I may have said this before, but once again I've noticed that critics tend to base their reviews on how they think a film should have been made instead of what it actually is.

[jo]

Sept 3, 2018 10:48:33 GMT -5 carouselkathy said:

I may have said this before, but once again I've noticed that critics tend to base their reviews on how they think a film should have been made instead of what it actually is.

On point! I share your view, Kathy

[jo]

With extreme delight, Hughmanity -- and I will explain why after I post the whole review

weliveentertainment.com/welivefilm/front-runner-review-hugh-jackman-becomes-gary-hart/


The Front Runner Review: Hugh Jackman Becomes Gary Hart
Scott Menzel September 1, 2018 6 likes

The Front Runner Review: Hugh Jackman Becomes Gary Hart

Probably my most anticipated film of the 45th Annual Telluride Film Festival was Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner. While I didn’t know much about Gary Hart’s story prior to seeing the film, I was intrigued by the film because of the director and the cast. I typically enjoy films that are centered around politics and showcase how the campaign process works. For all these reasons I was very excited to see what Jason Reitman would bring to the table with The Front Runner.

In the film, Hugh Jackman plays Gary Hart, a beloved democratic senator who was supposed to run against George Bush for President in 1988. The Front Runner chronicles Hart’s rise in popularity as well as his downfall after the Miami Herald discovers that Hart is having an affair. The majority of the film takes place over a course of three weeks leading up to the Democratic primary election.

There have been quite a few films about scandals and the power of journalism as of late, with The Post and Spotlight being two of the most popular. These films usually tell stories from the 60s, 70s, and 80s that oddly enough feel incredibly relevant and timely. The Front Runner is another film in the same vein as it is all about the ethics of politicians as well as what it means to be a great journalist.

While watching Hugh Jackman portray Gary Hart, you quickly forget that you are watching an actor as Jackman becomes a politician who firmly believes that his personal life should not be made public. Reitman’s biggest skillset has always been picking the right people to star in his films and that is no different from this one. Jackman’s performance is phenomenal and one of the best of his career. This role continues to showcase how gifted of an actor Jackman is whether he’s playing a fictionalized version of P.T. Barnum or a real-life political mastermind like he plays in this film.



Alongside Jackman is a great ensemble cast that includes so many talented actors including J.K. Simmons, Alfred Molina, Kaitlyn Dever, Mamoudou Athie, and Vera Farmiga. I felt that the entire supporting cast was great in their roles as each cast member brings something to the table. Even though the entire supporting cast is great, I do think that there are two or three standouts which are Mamoudou Athie as A.J. Parker, Molly Ephraim as Irene Kelly, and J. K. Simmons as Bill Dixon.

Athie plays Parker, a newbie political reporter who lets his personal beliefs get in the way of doing his job. He believes in Hart’s politics and doesn’t want to believe that he is cheating on his wife. I loved the scenes where Parker begins to question Hart’s personal life. The way that Hart reacts to his questioning is somewhat shocking as he comes across as someone who can’t seem to wrap his mind around that he is a person in the spotlight. He doesn’t quite seem to grasp that times have changed and instead continues to deflect every personal question by yelling or saying “that’s private.”

Ephraim plays Irene Kelly, a young woman that works for the Hart campaign. Throughout the film, Irene is forced to question her own morals as she must decide whether she wants to stand behind Hart despite all the evidence that begins to surface that he is guilty. Irene is assigned to bond with Donna Rice (Sara Paxton), a model that had an affair with Hart. You can see in Ephraim’s eyes that she is torn with what to do but continues to push forth despite having doubts.


J.K Simmons as Bill Dixon is the film’s most entertaining character because Bill doesn’t like to sugarcoat things. The scene where Bill tries to talk to Gary about what happens and he responds with “I don’t have to tell anyone what happened” is a pretty great scene showcasing that even though they have known each other for years, he still refuses to allow his personal life make headlines. Bill also has some great lines of dialogue that are funny but also pretty on-point to the way the world works. I don’t recall the exact line but he mentions something about how the world changed and how Hart’s scandal is big news despite how in the past other Presidents and senators got away with a lot more and yet no one said a word about it.



What The Front Runner does so well is that it begs the question, “does what happens in a person’s private life truly reflect their ability to lead?” As Hart addresses the nation near the end of the film, he begins to tell the American people why he believes that so few people don’t run for office. Do we as Americans view our politicians the same way that we view celebrities? We as a society seem to forget that politicians are people too and their personal lives shouldn’t always be made public. A lot of people will say that Hart’s actions are very similar to that of Donald Trump but I disagree. Hart seemed like someone who just wanted to keep his personal life private as he didn’t want to become a celebrity.

While the film does cover a lot of content in just under two hours, I couldn’t help but feel like it dragged in spots. The film definitely has some pacing issues but there is so much going on and so I have a hard time point out what specifically should be cut but I do think the film could use a bit of a trim before it’s released in November.

The Front Runner is a timely film that I believe will connect the most with those who are fans of films about journalism and political scandals. I sadly don’t see this film becoming the next Spotlight or The Post even though I enjoyed this one a whole lot more than both of those films. It is a great character study and an in-depth look into the life of one man who truly believed that his personal life should remain personal.


Scott ‘Movie Man’ Menzel’s rating for The Front Runner is an 8.5 out of 10.

I have not seen the film, of course... but this sounds like the perspective of someone who views the movie without any preconceived notion of how the story should be told and how the movie should conclude. On the issue of how the movie should have been handled and how it should conclude, I did wonder earlier if the movie press ( which wrote some of the reviews/screening impressions) had a completely objective standpoint when they viewed the movie --

It is also an intriguing issue to know how current media views the perspective of the changing media then. Can they be objective in assessing the stance taken by the media then? Or defensive? I think that is actually the debate issue that is one of the key subjects of the movie.

*One of the first social media reactions from the premiere came from Scott Menzel and it was very favorable. He shares with his readers ( and prospective audience of the movie) what he thinks need highlighting, some tentative conclusions, and even some minor recommendations on how to improve the movie ( if that can still be done before general release).


*He views the film as Jason Reitman probably intended it to be. A presenting of the main issue via the different perspectives from each group of character. I think the storytelling is secondary to clarifying that each set of characters ( Hart, included) may be viewing the unfolding events from different prisms... and that maybe Reitman is challenging the viewer to form his own perspective.

*He does highlight that the movie is a great character study!

*There is not much attention to the technical craft of filmmaking - the below-the-line aspects - but more of focusing mainly on the directorial viewpoint and the acting achievements.

*He is writing it with a movie fan's fresh perspective -- he is going along as the film unfolds. No expectations on how it should be, given particularly that this is based on a true story. In other words, he is viewing that "true story" as Reitman did - viewing it from different perspectives!

Jo