Election Day: Politically-themed movies that get my vote

Today is Election Day and it looks to be a depressing one for reasons I won't elaborate on here. Probably like most Americans, you're sick and tired of politics right now but the reality is that everything is political (just like nearly everything is sexual) and therefore so are most movies.

Of course, most films aren't overtly liberal or conservative. The demands of commerce and the desire to appeal to the broadest possible audience usually keeps most Hollywood productions from veering too far from the center. The industry has a reputation for being progressive, and while there is some validity to that stereotype there has also been a long history of far-right jingoistic propaganda in American film as well.

Here are just a few of my favorite films that are unabashedly about politics, politicians and the system in which they operate.

All the President's Men (1976) - This movie single-handedly recruited a whole new generation of journalists who were inspired by the remarkable true story about two unheralded Washington Post reporters (played with dynamite chemistry by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) who end up helping to bring down Richard Nixon by exposing Watergate. Paced like a thriller, this hit film creates tension even when we know the results. One of the great films of the 1970s.

Nixon (1995) - Speaking of Nixon, this sprawling and more-sympathetic-than-you-might-think biopic on the controversial 37th president was Oliver Stone's last truly great film. Sir Anthony Hopkins wouldn't seem like an obvious choice to play such a resolutely American figure but he is brilliant, as is Joan Allen as his long suffering wife Pat. The movie works as both history lesson and operatic tragedy. One of the most underrated movies of the '90s.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - A stunning indictment of the McCarthy era disguised as a wild espionage thriller. A taciturn soldier (played beautifully by Laurence Harvey) is captured and brainwashed in Korea and returned home to be used as a pawn by his Machiavellian mother (Angela Lansbury) and her ultra-conservative senator husband. Frank Sinatra, a Democrat at the time and the star of the film, pulled the movie from circulation after the assassination of JFK, but it has been rediscovered for the masterpiece it was and is since.

JFK (1991) - Speaking of JFK, I have to give props to one of my favorite films of all time. Although the movie is largely concerned with the murder of the president, it is also an incisive look at the danger posed by an overzealous military industrial complex (the film opens with President Eisenhower's stark warning about this very issue). This miraculous movie plunges you into the powder keg of the 1960s, a time where politically charged killings were common place and questions were rarely raised as to who and why.

Clooney, Hoffman and Gosling in The Ides of March

Bulworth (1998) - If you're looking for something lighter, you can't go wrong with Warren Beatty's prescient and daring black comedy about a Democratic senator who's sold his soul to the right but becomes liberated to say what he really thinks when he believes his life is coming to an end. Satire of the highest order, the movie's tone shifts and politically incorrect humor may not hold up well for some viewers. But I'm a big Beatty fan and I think he was right on with this decidedly uncommercial movie.

The Candidate (1972) - Robert Redford gives one of this greatest performances in this very smart and still relevant depiction on how candidates are molded and often neutered by our slick political process. Redford plays an idealist recruited to run in a race and lose, but when his ideas start to get traction, the vultures descend. Hollywood never makes these kinds of sophisticated adult movies anymore and it's a real shame because these are the films with the most staying power.

The Ides of March (2011) - One recent exception to that rule was George Clooney's underrated potboiler The Ides of March. Ryan Gosling anchors a top notch cast, including a terrific Philip Seymour Hoffman and Clooney himself in a rare villainous turn, in this crackling look at a modern high stakes campaign under the threat of a disastrous scandal. Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck was better received by critics, and I liked that too, but this film is more entertaining and less preachy.

Lincoln (2012) -  Steven Spielberg's Oscar winning blockbuster may have been a wee bit corny at times but it's such a stunning rendering of the era of Lincoln it's hard to quibble. Only Spielberg could make legislative dealmaking this riveting, and he's aided by incredible performances from veteran actors like Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field. Still, it's Daniel Day-Lewis that steals the show with his show-stopping performance as the 16th president. Years from now his take will be how we imagine the man actually was.

Election (1999) - This uproarious black comedy introduced audiences to the unique talents of Alexander Payne, showed us the dark side of Matthew Broderick, and provided Reese Witherspoon with what is still the best part of her career to date (although I am hearing very good things about her upcoming movie Wild). This broad satire captures an especially cutthroat battle over who should be class president of a run-of-the-mill high school. It's laugh-out-loud funny until you think about it's dark core, which suggests drive trumps everything else in the world of politics.

Wag the Dog (1997) - I just recently revisited this one and it really holds up. This very clever black comedy, written by David Mamet, portrays an elaborate White House ruse to help cover-up an affair as an Election Day approaches. There may be no film more indicative of the Clinton era than this one. Dustin Hoffman is marvelous as a Hollywood producer who is brought in to consult and feels perpetually unappreciated and Robert De Niro is his equal in a lower key role as a Mr. Fix It.

In the Loop (2009) - This deliriously fast-paced and foul mouthed precursor to HBO's Veep is like a 1930s screwball comedy with a far filthier script. The cast of character actors from both the U.S. and the U.K. have a field day playing various figures in the political food chain trying to grapple with a potential march to war that is eerily similar to the second Iraq War. I guess it's becoming a bit of theme that the best political comedies are dark, but so be it.

Dr. Strangelove (1964) - Stanley Kubrick's legendary farce mocks the childish men who hold humanity's lives in their grasp because they control our nuclear arsenal, Kubrick apparently had a very serious, real fear (like many Americans at the time) that the Cold War would lead to the destruction of our planet. Fortunately it didn't, and so now we can sit back and enjoy the breathtakingly funny performances of people like Peter Sellers and George S. Scott in this virtually flawless political satire.

Milk (2008) - An incredibly moving and faithful portrait of gay rights icon Harvey Milk (Sean Penn in one of his most emotionally compelling performances). While the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk is arguably superior, Gus Van Sant's terrific biopic gets at the essence of what made Milk lovable and inspirational. The movie couldn't have come at a more relevant time, its release coincided with efforts to roll back gay marriage across the country.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - Few filmmakers are more of a lightening rod than Michael Moore, and although I don't always agree with his views -- I do admire his audacity. I miss his work because he was a real conversation starter whether it be on guns (Bowling for Columbine), health care (Sicko) or greed (Capitalism: A Love Story). Yet, with this film he really tapped into the zeitgeist. He may not have swung an election, but he changed the conversation about an increasingly unpopular war and president.