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Bush's Brain
Directed by
Joseph Mealey
and
Michael Shoob
2004
80m
PG-13
Documentary
6.7
63%
57%
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An examination of political consultant Karl Rove's influence on George W. Bush's candidacy.
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Cast of Bush's Brain
Jim Hightower
Self (archive footage)
Jacques Vroom
Narrator
Cathy Bonner
Bruce Buchanan
Max Cleland
Shirley Cuff
Robert Edgeworth
Kent Hance
Bill Israel
Molly Ivins
Richard Leiby
Susie Lieseke
Wade Lieseke Jr.
Ken Luce
Gary Mauro
Chuck McDonald
Dave McNeely
Pete McRae
Bill Miller
Mike Moeller
Jesse Oliver
Tom Pauken
Chelle Lieseke Pokorney
Ross Ramsey
A.R. Schwartz
Dee Simpson
Glenn Smith
Jason Stanford
Karl Struble
John Weaver
Joseph Wilson
Lee Atwater
George W. Bush
James C. Moore
Karl Rove
Wayne Slater
Bush's Brain Reviews
San Francisco Chronicle
Jonathan Curiel
Enlightening and frightening.
Seattle Times
Tom Keogh
Directors Joseph Mealey and Michael Paradies Shoob make a persuasive though not incontestable case that Rove directly sabotaged the 1986 Texas governor's race.
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Simplicity may be appealing, but it has its limits.
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
The accusations are alarming and juicy enough to strike up a watchable combo of fear and gall.
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Propaganda? You bet. But a scary and persuasive case is made.
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Littered with sloppy accusations and one-sided arguments, Bush's Brain, like so many political documentaries of late, is transparently manipulative.
Newsday
Gene Seymour
Examines Rove's rise to power within the context of politics-as-usual. Such perspective adds power to the movie's punch.
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
One of the better political documentaries flooding into theaters after Fahrenheit 9/11 and before the election.
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The movie feels like a rush job and at times its tactics are as suspect as those attributed to its subject.
New York Times
Stephen Holden
This politically damning profile chronicles the rise to power of Karl Rove, the brilliant, nerdy chief aide to President Bush.
Houston Chronicle
Eric Harrison
It's a competent examination of an important subject, but in a year that has been filled with stunning political documentaries with high production values, it suffers from an overreliance on talking heads.
Dallas Morning News
Philip Wuntch
Lacking the narrative thrust and cinematic power of Fahrenheit 9/11, it will not dent President George W. Bush's executive armor as deeply as the Michael Moore documentary did.
Slant Magazine
Ed Gonzalez
Another week, another film to add to an already sizeable pile of anti-Bush polemics.
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
They succeed in presenting a compelling series of dots, to use the current parlance, but they don't succeed in connecting them.
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Downright chilling.
New York Magazine/Vulture
Peter Rainer
I'm not sure that depicting Rove as a demonic Wizard of Oz does much more than stir righteous indignation among the already indignant.
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Some believe that the evil genius behind our unelected maximum leader is Dick Cheney. The filmmakers argue that it's 'co-president' Rove (installed, we learn, in Hillary Clinton's old office).
Variety
Joe Leydon
By turns darkly comical, seriously scary and purposefully incendiary.
Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Mealey and Shoob's film is a little too 'Inside Baseball' as it takes a deep dive into arcane Texas politics as discussed by a series of talking heads. Yet what they say -- and much of it is hard to refute -- is devastating stuff.
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