Reason Writers Around Town: Peter Suderman HBO's Game Change in The Washington Times
Associate Editor Peter Suderman reviews Game Change, HBO's new film about the role of Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential campaign, in The Washington Times:
The narrative of HBO's "Game Change" will be familiar to anyone who followed the arc of the 2008 campaign season — so familiar, in fact, that it raises the question of why the movie was made.
Director Jay Roach and screenwriter Danny Strong offer a mostly respectful summary and recitation of a string of pivotal moments from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, but little insight. Viewers will learn nothing that's genuinely new, nor see anything in a different light. To put it in the parlance of political pundits, the movie lacks vision.
Instead, it chases Sarah Palin, and the infinite loops of hype that have accompanied her every word and move since the 2008 campaign. "Game Change" presents itself as a sort of origin story — who she is and how she came to be. But the movie reveals more about the media's compulsive obsession with Mrs. Palin than it does about Mrs. Palin herself.
