Film

Our Brand Is Crisis

Other titles called Our Brand Is Crisis: the 2005 film.

Sandra Bullock leads a scrappy team of American political operatives who arrive in Bolivia to salvage a presidential campaign, armed with spin, cynicism, and the conviction that perception beats reality. Tonally torn between satire and substance, it's fast-paced and funny but never quite settles on what it wants to say about American interference abroad.

TMDb rating2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sharp, cynical comedy about people who are good at a dirty job and too proud to admit how much it costs them, with Sandra Bullock carrying the sardonic momentum.

Skip it if you want a clean, uplifting political story with clear heroes; this one keeps its loyalties tangled and its moral picture murky, and the jokes can curdle into bitterness.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and forty-seven minutes and moves briskly through campaign strategy and backroom bickering, so it rewards close attention to who is betting on whom.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Wag the Dog1997

The template for every film about manufactured political reality. Barry Levinson's dark comedy about a spin doctor and Hollywood fixer creating a war to distract from scandal is sharper and more savage than it has any right to be.

But The 1990s political cynicism will feel quaint if you're looking for something that matches current corruption in scale or audacity.

Wag the Dog poster

In the Loop2009

Armando Iannucci's vicious takedown of political communication as pure performance. The dialogue is weapons-grade, the ensemble cast all destroys, and it finds both genuine darkness and enormous laughs in the machinery of spin.

But Relentlessly mean-spirited. If you want to like any of these people, this isn't it.

In the Loop poster

Thank You for Smoking2005

Jason Reitman's sharp comedy about a tobacco lobbyist who can argue anything into acceptability. It's a masterclass in how charm and rhetoric function as tools of power, and it's genuinely, wickedly funny.

But The moral calculus can feel slick. You might resent how sympathetic it is to the con.

Thank You for Smoking poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Our Brand Is Crisis

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Populaire2012

Both show how campaigns and narratives can engineer a persona. Populaire treats it as romantic destiny; Crisis treats it as corruption. Same machine, opposite faith.

A French romantic comedy about a secretary and a businessman competing in 1950s typing competitions. The connection: both are about how narrative and performance can remake someone's identity, and how campaigns—whether political or personal—can elevate or diminish a life. It's sincere where Crisis is cynical, but structurally identical.

But It's whimsical and slight. The artificiality of the setup may feel precious, and the stakes couldn't be smaller.

Populaire poster
More like this (6)

The Ides of March2011

George Clooney directs and stars in this tense campaign thriller about ambition, backroom dealing, and the corruption of idealism. Claustrophobic, smart, and genuinely unsettling about how power operates.

But It's procedural and a bit airless. If you want warmth or humor, you won't find much.

The Ides of March poster

Veep2012

Armando Iannucci's American series about a Vice President and her staff is perhaps the sharpest political satire ever made for television. Faster than light, cruel, and genuinely brilliant in its observation of how offices actually function.

But Runs for seven seasons. The premise wears thin, and the later seasons lose sight of the wit that made the earlier ones essential.

Veep poster

Charlie Wilson's War2007

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Mike Nichols' charming, clever film about a congressman who bankrolled the Afghan resistance. It's about how individuals with access can shape geopolitics, told with wit and genuine affection for its characters.

But It's too fond of its characters to really interrogate the consequences. If you want moral reckoning, you won't find it here.

Charlie Wilson's War poster

The West Wing1999

Aaron Sorkin's idealistic drama about a Democratic White House. The opposite of cynicism—it's about smart people trying to do the right thing. If you want the counterargument to crisis-management politics, this is it.

But Deeply of its moment, and its faith in institutions and rhetoric hasn't aged well. The self-regard can feel suffocating if you're in the wrong mood.

The West Wing poster

The Death of Stalin2017

Both about machinery grinding people through campaigns, but Death of Stalin understands the actual stakes. Crisis thinks it's serious but softens at the end. This doesn't flinch.

Armando Iannucci's black-and-white comedy about Soviet politics and succession. Pitch-black, fast, about competing power structures and how information is weaponized. Proves that political satire can be hilarious and genuinely dark at once.

But Savage and uncomfortable. The historical stakes are real, and the comedy comes from human cost, not mere cleverness.

The Death of Stalin poster

A Prophet2009

Both about charisma as a survival tool and a weapon. Crisis frames it as a skill to mock; Prophet frames it as a necessity that costs everything. This is what happens if the campaign never ends.

Jacques Audiard's masterpiece about a young man who learns to manipulate, calculate, and survive prison through reading people and situations. It's about power accrual, coalition-building, and selling yourself to those who matter. Shot with breathtaking precision and moral weight.

But It's bleak, slow-burn, and in French. There's no humor here, and it demands you sit with discomfort. Nothing is fun in this world.

A Prophet poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

Mistaken for Strangers, Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi, Terms and Conditions May Apply, Virgin Tales, The Iraq War, Dirty Wars, The Pinochet Case, The Final Year, Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, Soul Food Junkies, RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, The Future of Food, The Death of Yugoslavia, Citizen K, Bodyline, While We're Young, Rendition, The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane?, Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, The Russian Woodpecker, Journeys with George