Silver City Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)September 24th, 2004
PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
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Why should Michael Moore get all of the attention? That's what John Sayles asks with Silver City, a film that's just as anti-Bush but has received (to date) a fraction of the hype.
City is about a campaign for the Colorado governorship, though we only ever see one candidate: Richard Pilager (Chris Cooper). And his background might seem a little familiar to you. He's from a high-powered political family with close ties to Big Business. He's known to sputter a malapropism or two (in the same sentence). He has a history of drinking and DWIs. And he was known as "Dim Dickie" to his frat buddies.
City's protagonist is Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston, who has the misfortune of looking a little too much like Jeb Bush), a private dick hired to find out who planted the dead body that was hooked by Pilager during the taping of a campaign commercial which showed the candidate as a fisherman. His investigation leads him through a slew of small but enjoyable performances from the likes of Darryl Hannah, Tim Roth, Thora Birch, Maria Bello, and Kris Kristofferson. And, because the film revolves around Latino characters, there's prerequisite scene of the Day of the Dead parade. Not Sayles's strongest or most subtle work, but enjoyable if not only for Cooper's uncanny Bush impression (it's better if you close your eyes).
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