Starring: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, John Lithgow, Sam Waterston
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Political thriller directed by John Madden which centers on Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), a ruthless and highly successful political strategist who exposes the cutthroat world of D.C. lobbyists working on both sides of the gun debate.
New legislation requiring more stringent background checks for gun purchases is gaining traction in the Senate, and Sloane is approached to spearhead the campaign, pitting her against formidable and powerful political opponents. Deploying her notorious skills, and driven by a desire to win at all costs, she jeopardizes those closest to her, and puts her own career at risk.
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 17)
Elizabeth Sloane: Lobbying is about foresight, about anticipating your opponent’s moves, and devising counter measures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition and plays her trump card just after they play theirs. It’s about making sure you surprise them, and they don’t surprise you.
George Dupont: What’s going on with you!
Elizabeth Sloane: The current system is so porous it floats.
George Dupont: I don’t remember you caring ever one way or another about guns
Elizabeth Sloane: My position solidified somewhere between Columbine and Charleston. Come on, George. Any headcase, felon or terrorist can buy an assault rifle from a gun show, the internet, or his buddy at the Bowl-A-Rama without so much as an ID. Keaton Harris puts a stop to that.
George Dupont: Christ, Liz, this is the gun lobby! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to reel them in? No, something happened. Someone you know is a victim of a gun crime.
Elizabeth Sloane: Nonsense. I work on behalf of causes I believe in, that’s why I sleep at night.
George Dupont: You don’t sleep at night. You sit and obsess about winning no matter the cause.
Daniel Posner: I was against you ever hiring her.
Rodolfo Schmidt: Because your job is not winning lobbying finds, your job is to stop us from getting…
[Sloane watches them arguing through the glass window not being able to hear them]
Daniel Posner: Quite independently for being utterly contemptible! What the hell were you thinking? You know, whatever it was I guess it seems pretty stupid now.
[Schmidt enters the office Sloane is standing in]
Rodolfo Schmidt: Liz, meet your protection.
[Posner reluctantly enters the office]
Daniel Posner: Daniel Posner, head of legal.
Elizabeth Sloane: Liz Sloane, contemptible liability, and amateur lip reader. Whose idea were the glass walls, seriously?
Elizabeth Sloane: What’s the best indicator of voter intention?
Everyone in the Meeting: Dollars.
Elizabeth Sloane: That’s our first prompt. Grassroots action aimed squarely at soliciting donations, not names on a petition, not clicks in cyberspace.
Brian: Will they know how much we’re raising?
Franklin Walsh: Non-profits have to report on their finances.
Rodolfo Schmidt: With every congressional staffer watching finding there like a hawk.
Elizabeth Sloane: While you’re out there hustling I’ll be working influential senators who can deliver their colleagues votes. That’s our second prompt. Our third is to identify who holds sway in target states, employers, workers groups. Don’t just waltz into a senator’s office and make your case, find out who they trust, who they can’t afford to piss off. Convince that person to make your case. That is how we win.
Elizabeth Sloane: I was hired to win, and I’ve used whatever resource I have.
George Dupont: She’s your enemy now.
Pat Connors: How the hell did she manage that!
Rodolfo Schmidt: You’re a piece of work, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Sloane: A senator’s priority isn’t representing the people, it’s keeping his ass in office.
Cynthia: That is so cynical.
Elizabeth Sloane: Cynical is a word used by Pollyannas to denote an absence of the naivety they so keenly exhibit.
Rodolfo Schmidt: Wow. You settle in fast.
Elizabeth Sloane: Alright, everyone, I called you here to announce that effective immediately I am leaving Paul Kravitz. I’m starting work as lead consultant for the Brady campaign at Peterson Wyatt. I’ve secured positions for everyone in this room without changing your current compensation. So who’s with me on this?
Pat Connors: I just spent the last hour wiping your shit off Bill Sanford’s shoes, assuring him that you’re the right lady to broaden his membership. We’re inches from a green light!
Elizabeth Sloane: So you’re saying I should put you down as a maybe.
Pat Connors: You can’t possibly win this!
Elizabeth Sloane: Who’s with me?
[nobody in the room says anything then Ross stands]
Ross: I’m with you.
Pat Connors: Hey, come on, I need you.
Ross: She needs me more.
Elizabeth Sloane: Alex.
[Alex joins Ross]
Elizabeth Sloane: Lauren?
[Lauren joins the other two]
Pat Connors: What is this, Jerry Maguire?
Bob Sanford: There’s over five million of us, and we’re armed.
George Dupont: Start an inquisition.
Travis: [to Sloane] They will throw you in jail for contempt of congress!
Pat Connors: [to Sloane] Do you know the word “annihilate”? It means reduced to nothing.
Elizabeth Sloane: This is more important than my career.
Rodolfo Schmidt: [to Sloane] Just mind boggling, ingenious, and completely unbelievable.
Esme Manucharian: [to Sloane] You crossed a line!
Total Quotes: 17
Trailer:
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Miss Sloane: A Film Confused With a Political Agenda
Miss Sloane is the new political drama/thriller directed by John Madden that stars Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. This film tells the story of a feared and highly respected lobbyist named Elizabeth Sloane who has battled many giant political opponents before, who then decides to take on the right wing’s gun supporters by passing a gun law titled the Heaton-Harris Amendment. This then takes the audience on this amazing and fast paced thriller that encompasses the themes and setting of the political battleground. This creates an incredible, enthralling, and adrenaline pumping political thriller.
Let me start by giving a small rant about this film by saying that this film has gotten a lot of flak from critics. It currently sits a 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.4 out of 10 on IMDB. And, from what I’ve read it seems as if these critics have taken their political beliefs and agendas into the film to critique it. This is insulting to me as a critic, because we as critics are there to criticize the film based purely on its filmmaking and nothing else. You see these types of reviews with films like Lone Survivor, American Sniper, and 13 Hour, because many review these films with a left-wing agenda just as this film was criticized with a right-wing agenda. Nonetheless in my opinion have not read very many reviews on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes that have judged this movie based on its filmmaking. Back to this film and my review on how I loved this film. The filmmaking of this film was really well done in my opinion.
This film has a very fast pace from beginning to end that I found exhilarating, and I know that’s weird to say about a drama, but I was on the edge of my seat throughout this film’s entirety. This is part to the brilliantly done editing of the film. This film is edited so precisely and rapidly, that it creates this sense of unpredictability with the narrative. It also creates a sense of edginess with the tone of the film, as throughout the film you’ll feel like you’re waiting for something to go wrong or a giant crescendo of sorts. This also is in due part to the masterful direction of John Madden who uses great shot sequence to set up more than one narrative driven visual, a visual narrative frame is that if you paused the film on that exact shot you could dissect the frame for not only character analysis but narrative analysis as well. And, he does this multiple times throughout the film where the lighting, shot design, and sound design creates a tone in itself.
The other thing that this film has is incredible performances, especially from Jessica Chastain who gives an incredible performance. I was completely drawn to her character in every way. The other characters in the film are well done as well with great performances from Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mark Strong as well. The only flaws I had with this film was that it does suffer from character development as far as how the only character truly developed is that of Elizabeth Sloane and Esme Manucharian. Which at the same time these are the only character we as audience are supposed to be drawn too, but there are certain narrative perspectives that I felt could have been stronger with more strongly developed characters. The only other flaw I found that the fast paced editing of the film could cause some audience members to feel lost in the narrative, because it’s one of those films that’s so fast paced that if you blink you will find yourself lost.
Overall, this film is a beautiful dissection of the political battleground that encompasses Washington, and how we as citizens maybe don’t truly understand what is happening in Washington. This film portrays a adrenaline pumping thriller in this political arena that uses strong performances, rapid editing, and fully encompassing direction to create heart-pounding film. That only suffers from some undeveloped characters and for some audience members maybe too fast of a narrative.
I personally never got lost, but I would understand if that happened to someone in their viewing of the film. I was pumped up and ecstatic from Miss Sloane and I’m going to give this political thriller an A-. What do you think about criticizing a film based on your beliefs? What is your favorite political movie? Let me know down in the comments below and as always have a blessed day.
Rating: 4/5
Hi there. What was the quote in Miss Sloane regarding being cynical?
I loved it, but I can’t remember it?
Hi,
I believe this is the quote you are referring to:
Elizabeth Sloane: Cynical is a word used by Pollyannas to denote an absence of the naivety they so keenly exhibit.
I hope that’s answered your query!