Silver City

A tremendously satirical and funny look at how things get done in power families. Sad, but probably true. Says a lot for how important the hard work of a few "nobody's" is.... Full review

If you have insomnia, I have found a cure in this deathly boring film. To say that there is any pacing, anticipation (except that it will soon end and put us out of our misery) would be to say that this... Full review

The problem with this movies is not that in tried to be a "Chinatown" clone or that it tried to spray the viewer with a lot of left-right political mumbo jumbo, but that it didn't know where it was going. Was... Full review

I was disappointed by this. Oh, it is great fun goofing on any politician, the more smarmy and sanctimonious the better. But I can get political goofs by the dump truck load from elsewhere. What I expected was something as... Full review

John Sayles presents a remarkable portrait of what goes on behind the scenes in American politics today. Ecology is at the bottom of priorities. Power and money rules.... Full review

You'll never look at "W" again without thinking of Dickie Pilager! Nice piece of political satire and all too true. Well shot...well acted... and well directed. The characters are slightly "comic bookish" but consider their real life counterparts.Be sure to... Full review

Although this story line had great potential the movie failed to follow through with a plot. The actors and actress lived up to thier potential but unfortunalely the lack of a plot leaves you extremely frustrated. A long boring trip to... Full review

I liked this movie. I'm a John Sayles fan. I hope he can get some money together to make another movie, because he sure didn't make much on this one. I thought Maria Bello was the best actor in this... Full review

While not at the level of the best Sayles movies (Lone Star, The Secret of Roan Inish, etc.), Silver City is still entertaining. The film suffers a bit from trying to do too much, and not quite making it all... Full review

Someone takes a stand against the bad guy. PRetty real to life, too real I'm thinking. It delivers hope to a country settling in to crappy management of the environment. Grim and real to life. With adventure and mystery thrown in.... Full review

The Acting As the name Pilager indicates, the satire is none too subtle at the best of times. The worst casualties of this are Miguel Ferrer (as a sharp-tongued rightwing radio host), a bald Billy Zane as a smooth-talking spin doctor, Maria Bello as OBriens exasperated ex and Tim Roth and Thora Birch as a pair of Drudge Report-style website whistle-blowers. ... Full Review

Alberto Giacometti There's a great story of political intrigue hiding somewhere in Silver City . That time could be better used fleshing out the plot, which tends to take twists and turns at a seemingly random pace. ... Full Review

outness and rediscovering his passion for muckracking.....Sayles lays bare, in Silver City , the mess that is the American political scene today:....maybe Sayles is preaching to the choir and maybe....It's all very angry and funny, Cooper's wickedly mean Dubya impersonation, all stumbles of the tongue and blank....And he's enjoying it, too, being a necessary pain in the ass..... ... Full Review

Consequently, this is Sayles' least coherent and certainly least satisfying film in quite some time. That leaves his campaign adviser Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss) scrambling to cover it up as quietly as possible. ... Full Review

With pitch-perfect dialogue, unerring sense-of-place, and a slashing satiric strain, "Silver City" offers John Sayles's timely and toxic look at the state of the union on the eve of the 2004 Presidential election. Set against the backdrop of a mythic "New West," "Silver City" follows grammatically-challenged, "user-friendly" candidate Dicky Pilager (Cooper), scapegrace scion of Colorado's venerable Senator Jud Pilager (Murphy), during his gubernatorial campaign. ... Full Review

While Spike Lee rages and Michael Moore blusters, John Sayles quietly goes about his business as indie cinemas most thoughtful, intuitive and socially conscious filmmaker. ... Full Article

BY ROGER EBERT / May 19, 2005 Cast & Credits With Mark Wexler , Haskell Wexler , Peter Bart, Verna Bloom, Billy Crystal, Michael Douglas , Conrad L. Hall, Julia Roberts , Jane Fonda , Sidney Poitier, John Sayles ,... ... Full Article

"I started thinking about this story for Silver City after the Bush and Gore election. So many people in Florida told us, 'Well, the story wasn't about chads. ... Full Article

It's easy to make assumptions about a political candidate named Dickie Pilager. Taking such assumptions as its point of departure, Silver City goes on to complicate just these sorts of expectations. ... Full Article

Like his most accomplished movie Lone Star , Silver City juggles genres and throws in social commentary and local color. With the former movie, however, Sayles was able to wrap the political observations in a genuinely suspenseful storyline and scrupulously... ... Full Article

Gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper in a hilarious send-up of George W.) is trailblazing his way across his home state of Colorado, playing the fool at every campaign stop. While filming a bucolic fishing spot and spouting off about ... Full Article