Photo: Electric Entertainment, Lionsgate and Miramax
This article originally ran in 2018 and is being republished for Presidents’ Day.
One aspect of all movies about real-life presidents — an aspect one worries future films will not share — is a reverence for the office of the president. Every aspect of a human being’s life, whether it’s before, during, or after his time in the White House, is filtered through that lens: This person once held the most powerful office in the world. Everything else they do seems more important, more magnified: We look for insight into their soul in the most mundane, and least mundane, of life’s tasks. Their whole life becomes an origin story.
Again, this feels like it will all change…
