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Boogie Man is a complex, absorbing study of the contradictory life and times of architect of modern smear politics.
All Critics (29) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (2)
Fascinating to a political junkie like me who wasn't aware of the game back then. Dec 30, 2008
Fascinating to a political junkie like me who wasn't aware of the game back then.
Luke Y. Thompson
Director Stefan Forbes has assembled a brilliantly complex portrait that shines an unnerving light on the man who painted the landscape of contemporary American politics. Nov 10, 2008 | Full Review…
Director Stefan Forbes has assembled a brilliantly complex portrait that shines an unnerving light on the man who painted the landscape of contemporary American politics.
Jonathan F. Richards
By the end of Forbes' brisk, economical portrait, Atwater has been revealed as a repugnant and pathetic soul--and a political visionary, among the first to fully understand and harness the raw power of voters' fears. Oct 31, 2008 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
By the end of Forbes' brisk, economical portrait, Atwater has been revealed as a repugnant and pathetic soul--and a political visionary, among the first to fully understand and harness the raw power of voters' fears.
Jessica Reaves
Conventional but absorbing. Oct 30, 2008 | Rating: B | Full Review…
Conventional but absorbing.
Nathan Rabin
Stricken with brain cancer in 1990, Atwater renounced his Machiavellian ways, but as Forbes points out, his legacy lives on in his eager proteges Karl Rove and George W. Bush. Oct 30, 2008 | Full Review…
Stricken with brain cancer in 1990, Atwater renounced his Machiavellian ways, but as Forbes points out, his legacy lives on in his eager proteges Karl Rove and George W. Bush.
J. R. Jones
Boogie Man is a fascinating portrait of an almost likable rogue. Oct 30, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
Boogie Man is a fascinating portrait of an almost likable rogue.
Roger Ebert
Boogie Man is an incredibly timely and relevant film that uncovers the origins of political dirty pool (Atwater was the architect of much of the attack-ad style currently being deployed in the 2008 American election). Aug 22, 2017 | Full Review…
Boogie Man is an incredibly timely and relevant film that uncovers the origins of political dirty pool (Atwater was the architect of much of the attack-ad style currently being deployed in the 2008 American election).
Dorothy Woodend
A morality tale about the sewer politics of the Republican Party since Reagan and very relevant to the 2008 elections. Nov 12, 2008 | Full Review…
A morality tale about the sewer politics of the Republican Party since Reagan and very relevant to the 2008 elections.
Louis Proyect
A cinematic smear job against Atwater would be the easiest thing in the world, but Forbes is more interested in presenting a complex character study than a piece of liberal agitprop. Oct 31, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
A cinematic smear job against Atwater would be the easiest thing in the world, but Forbes is more interested in presenting a complex character study than a piece of liberal agitprop.
Rob Thomas
Both fascinating and upsetting, and makes you wish politics weren't so, well, political. Oct 30, 2008 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Both fascinating and upsetting, and makes you wish politics weren't so, well, political.
Matt Pais
Positively brims over with sour-grapes hearsay and character assassination. But you just know he deserved it, right? Oct 30, 2008 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Positively brims over with sour-grapes hearsay and character assassination. But you just know he deserved it, right?
Jonathan Kiefer
Lee Atwater is remembered as brilliant or shameful, effective or destructive, his life part American Dream, part horror movie. Oct 27, 2008 | Rating: 7/10
Lee Atwater is remembered as brilliant or shameful, effective or destructive, his life part American Dream, part horror movie.
Cynthia Fuchs
It tells its story in a way you might expect, but it has a few fascinating moments where even Atwater's most ardent defenders of his political tactics in Republican campaigns still decry him as a vicious monster capable of anything. It might even be fair to say that they only liked him because he was on their side.
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