Rating of
3/4
"Thank You For Smoking" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/09/12
Nick Naylor is possibly the most hated man in America; his job is basically to peddle poison to children. But it pays the mortgage...This extremely clever and insightful satire of today's climate of political spin is incredibly sharply written and has lots of laugh out loud moments as it deconstructs the methods used by PR men in the 21st century; even the "good guys" do not emerge unscathed as they are shown to use exactly the same tactics (see the hilarious scene when William H. Macy bemoans the quality of his TV "cancer kid"!). It may not have the flash and bangs of Lord Of War, but it has far more depth; in fact it reminded me more of an updated version of American Psycho. Instead of the hands on greed of the 80s satirised in that film, it shows how the immoral earn their corporate cash through hypocrisy and double talk these days rather than getting their "hands dirty". I couldn't help feeling that Jason Reitman got more carried away with making a political point and smart dialogue than dramatic momentum and so the plot lacked focus, but the cast are all superb and it contains witty and stylish visual and voice over cues in a similar vein to Fight Club and a great soundtrack. Very funny, very clever.
