Bob Roberts (1992) 102 Minutes

MOFO joined the Crew for this near full moon presentation of the third Political Pick in a row.

There was a bit of a furor before the presentation that Nubs had failed to get the best version of the film as it wasn’t letterboxed. But, much like Buffy’s ‘True Stories,’ ‘Bob Roberts’ was never shot in wide screen.

Our first Mockumentary (though ‘F for Fake’ is hard to categorize) ‘Bob Roberts’ was set to debut on a brand new Sheet. Our original Sheet was splattered with paint the week before when the Movienight Gods showed their displeasure for Tooda’s weak ‘The American President.’ Netti was generous enough to drive the new Sheet out to the Back Yard even though he was going to miss the Pick. Sadly, the fabric store screwed up and when Tooda went to hang the new Sheet he discovered it was only four feet wide. Under the gun, the old Sheet was employed for its 29th film and the Pollock-esque dabbles of paint across the surface were barely noticed.

In an amazing Movienight conversion, Tim Robbins-hater Slim had to admit after watching his writing/directing debut that there may be more to Mr. Robbins than he had given him credit for. ‘Bob Roberts’ marks the third appearance of Robbins after our first ever chick flick ‘Bull Durham,’ and the holiday pick ‘The Hudsucker Proxy.’ Three more from this enormous cast go for three here - Bob Balaban (‘Midnight Cowboy,’ and ‘CE3K’) and Peter Gallagher (‘The Hudsucker Proxy,’ and ‘American Beauty’) join the three-fer club after this presentation. A friend of Tooda’s, Brent Hinkley, makes his second appearance after his debut in Jaja’s ‘Ed Wood.’ Susan Sarandon is at two after the aforementioned ‘Bull Durham.’ John Cusack is the third three-fer from the film, following ‘Stand By Me,’ and ‘Being John Malkovich,’ while his sister Joan has two after appearing in Tooda’s ‘My Bodyguard.’ As for those debuting with this Pick...

Alan Rickman, David Stratharin, Jack Black, Helen Hunt, Giancarlo Esposito, Fred Ward, James Spader, Shira & Jeremy Piven, Ned Bellamy, Fisher Stevens, Harry Lennix, and Gore Vidal all debut here.

Next week, Netti follows up his very well-received ‘The Apartment.’

“Some people will have / Some simply will not / But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain...”

Written and Directed by: Tim Robbins

Brandon Comments:

I didn’t think it could be done, but Nubs did it. Nubs went and made me like Tim Robbins. He and I are pretty open about our “Who’s Better: Roy Scheider or Tim Robbins?” debate within the elite MovieNight Crew. But I’m not sure if the online readers of our reviews—those who are only with us in Internet spirit and not in person—know how severe this “Roy Scheider vs. Tim Robbins” argument has become. So severe, in fact, that almost all of my Selections thus far have, almost completely unconsciously, had Roy Schieder in them.

And with as much passion and vigor as I cherish Roy Scheider, the same could be applied in the exact opposite way for Tim Robbins. I loathe him as an actor. As a man, he’s great. As an actor, Robbins is wooden, baffoony and too average for his own good. He is the epitome of human vanilla. But…BUT…he was great in ‘Bob Roberts.’ The movie itself was great. It was a perfect bookend to that pile of luke-warm love-dung from the week prior.

The faux-documentary style of filmmaking works very well with ‘Bob Roberts,’ and Robbins plays it up perfectly. As the actor and director and writer of this film, I now look at Tim Robbins in a very different light.

Nubs, knockout movie! But beware, ‘Blue Thunder’ is coming soon.

SELECTOR Comments:

I haven’t thought about ‘Bob Roberts’ since I saw it Freshman year of college at the Loews on 10th street across from my 3rd Avenue dorm in New York. I was fortunate that Bourbon’s ‘The Candidate’ started the political wheels spinning and me scrambling for inspiration . Since I assumed Tooda would pick the perfect follow-up to ‘The Candidate,’ I had planned on giving up on the election jam session and just torment Slim with a Tim Robbins movie or introduce a new something to Movienight. You can imagine my happy happenstance when I IMDBed Tim Robbins and saw ‘Bob Roberts,’ the perfect follow-up to ‘The Candidate,’ right under my nose.

After rewatching it to see if it holds up these 16 years later, it is tragic how apt it still is. From the noble words of Bob’s ironic antagonist, the smart and good-natured Senator Paiste, refusing to go negative in his campaign, to the commercial depicting him too passed out to accept the same “3a.m.” call that won Hillary Texas(sort of). It’s clever and ironic and extremely satirical, perfect tools for our first mockumentary.

Before Tooda scolded me about the Full screen limitations(a moment every SELECTOR hopes for before his Selection begins) I was worried about the production value being worthy of our projection. Other than the full screen blemish and darkness I was impressed with many of ‘Roberts” cinematic feats. The many moving camera one-shots as used throughout but most impressively in the lost wandering interview with Bugs through toilets and ballet rehearsals, the fencing duel into motorcycle crash, and the sketch comedy show behind the scenes pulling the plug, are all brilliant choreography. The concert footage and music videos are not as impressive technically but very smartly conceived and ambitious for a little independent that could. The assemblance of Hollywood good guys and their performances are inspiring to the power of entertainer/activist driving this gem. Finally, all the songs are hilariously well written and worth a closer listen as we tended to break our own rules with our joy of MOFO back in the house.

Thanks, Tim Robbins, my buddy Slim said you were no good, and I said you were, and he said, “un-uh”, and now I’m right. You put a smile on our face, and a political beat to tap our feet to. You may not have the appearances yet, but I hope to anoint you side by side with Roy, Dusty, and Dreyfuss on the Movienight Roundtable.

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