Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.
Wag the Dog is a sharp, prescient political satire with a brilliantly conceived premise — a fake war manufactured for electoral distraction — that feels almost prophetic given later real-world events. The plot is tight and wickedly clever, with Levinson and the screenplay (adapted from Barry Levinson and David Mamet) landing satirical blow after blow. Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro are exceptional, with Hoffman's Hollywood producer being one of his most entertaining late-career performances. The film's novelty is high: its tone, cynicism, and media-manipulation thesis made it genuinely singular in 1997 and it remains distinctive. The ending is darkly funny but slightly abrupt — the final twist is satisfying without being fully earned dramatically. Cinematography is functional and unremarkable, suited to the talky, stagey material but offering nothing visually memorable.