Politics

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Knock Down The House captures the highs and lows of hope

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 15th May 2019

    How can it be that every week feels like the series finale of America? The dumpster fire of Donald Trump's presidency that has engulfed our lives and timelines since 2016 can't be good for the collective psyche, and it's strange to think that a mere three years ago this constant gnashing background noise wasn't the norm. But US politics has measures in place to course-correct, namely a series of midterm elections whereby successful candidates can win a Senate seat, thus increasing their party's reach within Congress. At least that's what I understand from Wikipedia. I live in England, where we bow to whoever has the tallest top hat or the fanciest swan. Before today everything I knew about the American political system I learnt from The Simpsons.

  • Review: Vice shows Dick Cheney as a man with few virtues and ohhh, I see what you did there

    Movie Review | Becky Suter | 21st January 2019

    My knowledge of Dick Cheney pretty much started and ended with knowing him as the veep who shot a guy in the face whilst on a hunting trip. Had I bothered to actually watch all of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart episodes I've recorded over the years, I would have known that Cheney has always been the dark heart of American politics; a man rotten to his very core, which itself is a tiny black hole from which no joy or light can escape, who's been haunting the White House long before President Trump gleefully served McNugget BBQ sauce out of the Lincoln silver gravy boats to those footballers. Luckily, Adam McKay is here again to distil complex information to dummies like me, although newsflash - the political system is like, totally corrupt, you guys.

  • Review: Fahrenheit 11/9 is a lukewarm takedown of Trump

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 31st October 2018

    There are ambitious movies, there are overly-ambitious movies, and then there are 'Let's tell the story of Donald Trump' movies. By now it should be pretty clear that the tall tales of the Trump presidency cannot be adequately covered in a single documentary - we're surely in 'multi-season HBO mini-series' territory - but Michael Moore has attempted to document Chapter 1 of The Donald Trump Story, the story of the American dream turned into a waking nightmare, handily prefaced here with a perfectly succinct and necessary question: "How the fuck did this happen?"

  • The 24 maddest moments from Gerard Butler's Pentagon press conference

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 16th October 2018

    Because global politics isn't weird and backwards and horrifying enough right now, Washington reporters gathered together yesterday afternoon for a Pentagon press conference, not to ask questions of President Trump, or his press secretary Sarah Sanders, or even White House advisor Stephen Miller, the Salacious Crumb to Trump's Jabba. No, today's speaker would be Gerard Butler, actor and star of forthcoming submarine thriller Hunter Killer. Perfectly normal, just another normal day, nothing to see here, so normal it hurts.

  • EU Referendum game-changer: The Shiznit backs Remain

    Movie Feature | Ed Williamson, Becky Suter, Matt Looker, Ali Gray | 23rd June 2016

    In line with all the UK's other major news outlets, The Shiznit is declaring its stance on the EU Referendum. As a forward-looking, progressive website which is only racist behind closed doors and even then it's only a bit of fun, we urge you to vote to remain in the European Union. If you don't, the following truly awful film-related things will 100% definitely happen.

  • LOL: when movies and politics collide

    Movie News | Luke | 11th May 2012



    Source: The Leveson Enquiry.

  • State Of Play

    Movie Review | Kirsty | 26th April 2009

    Let's say for argument's sake that Paul Abbott's 2003 mini-series State Of Play wasn't watched by everyone, and that many people will be coming to Kevin Macdonald's complex thriller completely cold, with no prior knowledge. Sitting comfortably? Let's begin. Cal McAfferey (Crowe), an old school investigative journalist for the...

  • In The Loop

    Movie Review | Ali | 19th April 2009

    In the same way that rock stars watch This Is Spinal Tap and cringe at the accuracy, so must politicians gaze into the mirror of The Thick Of It and recognise elements of the ridiculous that seem all too familiar. Not seen Armando Ianucci's sublime political satire? Click here, wait 1-2 days for delivery and come back smiling af...

  • Frost/Nixon

    Movie Review | Rob | 26th January 2009

    David Frost. Many of us probably know him as that bloke who used to poke his nose through keyholes, but back in the '70s, Frost was kind of a big deal - a media playboy who was making a name for himself on the box both in London and Australia. However, after his New York chat show was cancelled, Frost was desperate to save ...

  • W.

    Movie Review | Anna | 11th November 2008

    The cultural legacy of the Bush administration is one of opposition and subversion; from the songs of the Dixie Chicks, to the films of Michael Moore, to the literature of Ian McEwan. If Oliver Stone was hoping to earn his place in the canon of Bush-bashing, he's missed the mark with W. What the film does do is help us understan...