In this politically divisive time, has Hollywood answered a call with stories and profiles that increase our understanding of what’s going on?
Or, perhaps a bigger question is: Does anyone care about politics in pictures?
This year’s most lauded, Oscar-winning Best Picture “One Battle After Another” with Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, was both a box-office and critical hit. This despite its violent, heroic left-leaning revolutionaries and a cabal of right-wing racists with unapologetically murderous intentions.
That was followed by Jude Law as Vladimir Putin in “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” a decidedly political expose that chronicles the Russian dictator’s rise to steely kingpin.
Law has won universal praise for this unexpected casting. Interestingly, the film, despite co-starring Paul Dano as a fictional Kremlin operative, is a French production in English.
A similar biopic opened in 2024, detailing the origin and rise of Donald Trump. “The Apprentice” starred Sebastian Stan (Marvel’s “Winter Soldier”) as a young Trump being politically educated by the notorious Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Despite positive reviews and Academy Award nominations for both Stan as Best Actor and Strong Supporting, few were interested.
Last winter’s Netflix-backed “A House of Dynamite” was a cautionary nuclear war thriller from the Oscar-winning, boundary-breaking Kathryn Bigelow that completely failed to launch a national conversation about the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
President Trump however has made nuclear deterrence the prime reason for his current war with Iran.
Among Netflix’s most popular series is the political thriller “The Night Agent” which follows the often paranoid – and rightly so! — FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) as he uncovers a mole in a White House where POTUS is a woman.
It’s popcorn entertainment not meant to be taken seriously. Yet it can’t help, with its unexpected twists and changing alliances, but reflect our current landscape.
Similarly, Netflix’s other hit political series, “The Diplomat” with Keri Russell as America’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom also boasts a female POTUS and manages to highlight America’s changing place in the international world.
Then there’s the return of Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy’s Cold War hero, which suggests there is a global audience eager for old-fashioned All-American valor and idealism.
Played by five actors in film and television so far — Alec Baldwin (1990), Harrison Ford (1992–1994), Ben Affleck (2002), Chris Pine (2014), and John Krasinski (2018–2026), Ryan’s new film on Prime Video, “Jack Ryan Ghost War” sees our favorite CIA agent team up with Sienna Miller’s MI6 British operative.
Krasinski is very much hands-on with this, his first Jack Ryan thriller in three years. He helped conceive the premise, co-wrote the script and serves as an executive producer.
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