The American President (1995)

In all that is holy, may God bless Aaron Sorkin. Now that I really ponder myself, I really wish that I have a chance to see his television show, The West Wing. But other than that, I try very hard to seek out everything that this man has written. The Social Network boasted one of the single best screenplays I have ever encountered, and that Best Adapted Screenplay win was well-deserved indeed. This year, I went out of my way in search to see Moneyball solely on the idea that he was a part of the screenplay. And it was an amazing screenplay, just as much as this screenplay is. Directed by Rob Reiner only a year after he made what is said by many to be one of the worst motion pictures ever made, North, which I have yet to see, The American President stars Michael Douglas the president of the United States, a widower of the previous year with a daughter, who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist (Annette Bening), who is trying to get a crime control bill passed, where she is on the opposite side of the playing field as the President on that matter. Featuring a supporting cast including Martin Sheen and Michael J. Fox, this film does have a wonderful score, direction, and screenplay, which Sorkin actually admitted he usually wrote while on crack cocaine (there are no uses of ‘winning’ in the script, because after this past year I think that’s what the drug does to famous people). This film is just amazing. It is charming, dark, funny, harsh, dramatic, and delightful. Like everything else Sorkin makes, I will watch the DVD multiple times, especially when I am on my writing slump. Again, God bless Aaron Sorkin.
9/10