TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Monkeywess This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

edwagreen Outstanding study of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill controversy of 1991 with Greg Kinnear a standout as Sen. Joseph Biden, head of the senate committee investigations the allegations made by Prof. Hill. Kinnear actually sounded like Joe Biden and he was quick to profanity behind the scenes.The person portraying Prof. Hill, Kerry Washington, did not come across as a college professor until things really began to heat up.Definitely a fine film showing how politics entered into the fray. Too bad that Jennifer Hudson's character never was able to testify. It would have brought out more from the Oscar winner Hudson.The man who played Sen. Simpson from Wyoming gave a convincing supporting performance.Certainly the affects of the controversy played a major role in women gaining political clout as shown by the 1992 elections.

MovieHoliks I got around to watching the latest from HBO Films the other night. If you recall all the hoopla surrounding Anita Hill and SCOTUS nominee, Clarence Thomas, back in '91- the pubic hair on the Coke can, "Long Dong Silver", etc..- this movie will bring back some, um, "memories"-??? confused emoticon Kerry Washington plays the law professor who brings up these issues at the time, and Wendell Pierce is Thomas. The film goes into how reluctant Hill was to get involved- how she was sorta drawn into the whole thing, and how Republicans and Democrats (mostly made up of men who were involved in their own sex scandals at the time) really didn't want to delve too deep into the issue. Greg Kinnear plays Joe Biden, who was the reluctant head of the investigating committee. Treat Williams is well cast as Ted Kennedy. This was yet another really well-done film in the line of HBO originals. Even if you don't want to revisit that whole controversy, I think you will enjoy all the goings-on in backrooms, and the observing of the political processes. Definite thumbs up for this movie. Jennifer Hudson and Eric Stonestreet co-star.

grimalkin-2 The movie did a fine job of condensing the confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court, and Anita Hill's accusations that Thomas had sexually harassed her on numerous occasions and was morally unfit to become a justice. Various issues are explored, including sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment by an African American in the workplace, and sexual harassment by an African American male directed toward an African American female in the workplace. If there is a villain in the piece, it is neither Anita Hill nor Clarence Thomas (beautifully portrayed by Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce respectively), but the Democratic chairman, Joe Biden (Greg Kinnear), of the Senate committee debating Thomas's qualifications. From start to finish Biden is presented as a wuss, easily swayed and manipulated by Republicans to present Thomas in the best possible light. Along the way, Biden also loses witnesses to affirm Clarence Thomas's alleged behavior toward Anita and other women. The movie confronts the cowardliness of liberal white men (all the Democrats on the committee) dealing with sexual harassment charges that concern a black man, with the possible exception of the late-blooming Edward Kennedy who finally comes to Anita Hill's defense. For the most part, Republicans have a field day in attempting to destroy Anita Hill's reputation with bogus charges while Democrats remain mute. Greg Kinnear is completely credible as Biden as is Treat Williams as Ted Kennedy. The movie stresses how this confirmation hearing resulted in the country's growing sensitivity to sexual harassment. But it also shows how Joe Biden's ineptness results not only in Clarence Thomas's confirmation, but a generation of conservative opinions from the Supreme Court.

MisterWhiplash The bottom line with Confirmation is that it's not complex as far as the plot goes, and this is particularly if you know the history. In fall of 1991 Thurgood Marshall retired from SCOTUS, and, feeling the pressure to nominate a black man to the court, Bush picked Clarence Thomas, a man who many felt wasn't qualified for the court (as Jeffrey Wright's character says at one point, "I have students who are better qualified than Clarence Thomas"). But when asked by someone from Senator Biden's office about whether or not he should be confirmed, Anita Hill couldn't hold back and be silent and told the truth: she was sexually harassed, as far as having to hear vulgar talk about sex (i.e. "Long Dong Silver" is a thing in a court of public record, I mean Jesus), and asked out on multiple occasions. It got out to the press, she had to go testify, as did Thomas, and all this before a seemingly immovable date for the man's confirmation.This all could have made for a compelling mini-series, or an even longer movie. What is a little disappointing about is that this is probably the best this kind of movie could be, but it's still not quite good enough, or I should say that the detail isn't exactly strong enough. Mostly I found that the depiction of Clarence Thomas not exactly weak but basic: for such a man who I may find reprehensible (from before and during his 25 past years on the court), Wendell Pierce gives Thomas as a person, and character in this story, some dignity, and Anita Wright as Clarence Thomas' wife as well. But what about anything else aside from his indignation and sad faces? What else was/is there to Thomas? Maybe that just wasn't the focus, and director Fumiyama (of last year's surprise critical hit Dope), wanted to keep it on the politics and especially the media - many figures who you might recognize from CNN and elsewhere in cable news pop up as younger selves - certainly keeps a good eye on that. But what does make an impact and what is certainly good to look past the flaws here, are a) Kerry Washington's performance, which is so unwavering in making Anita Hill a figure of sympathy but also aching empathy, completely stripping anything else except this woman and having to put up being solid in front of the committee. And b) how the story and movie treats the whole aspect of how equal rights were not there in 1991, and may still not be (or, to put it another way, despite the changes the struggle is ongoing), for women in this country.Like the recent People vs OJ series, we get a story that seems to deal a lot in race - Thomas' "High tech lynching" comment that struck an emotional chord for some but was seen as being disingenuous by others - and yet it's really about how women fit it, or certainly do not, in a world full of men. Images of women and how they talk and react, every little thing that they say, is under the kind of scrutiny here that men just don't have to face, at least not to this level. Confirmation is about the representation of a woman's image in politics, in the media, in the public at large, and what that does when up against a "street fight" as one of the raging white male Republican senators says. You can read a lot into what the hearings, as seen in this story, say about the national public character, and yet it's displayed for us to see in those hearings, and the behind-the-scenes fights and digging for dirt via the Republican senators, as opposed to spelled out all the time.Confirmation doesn't stretch entirely too far for it to be great, or quite on the level of Recount or Game Change as far as HBO original movies about hot-button/controversial political stories in this country from the modern age, but within what it tries to do, and from the acting from all the players that is never less than convincing (Kinnear, who plays a rather unsympathetic Senator Biden, who screwed up things in the hearing just as far as scheduling people to testify, is one of those), it works. I'd even watch it again if just to see how Washington pulls off the majority of her scenes.