Death of a President

What the hell is this? No matter how much you hate George W. Bush, there’s just no cause for cinematic garbage like this. The film is a mock documentary of sorts, telling the story of the assassination of Bush as if it were fact. Not only does it kill Bush on screen; it goes into a hypothetical manhunt for his fictional assassin, showing how our government would use racism and the war on terror to scapegoat an Arab man for the murder. Director Gabriel Range might think he’s an auteur, but he’s just copying the documentary style Errol Morris utilized for The Thin Blue Line (and he doesn’t even do that good of a job copying). One of the problems with this sort of stunt is that the actors are so obviously acting, destroying the illusion that is trying to be created. It doesn’t look or feel authentic, and it’s not helped by a script that takes far too many obvious turns. It’s not original enough to be controversial. It’s just stupid, irresponsible filmmaking.