Melting Pot

I was flipping channels and happened upon this little gem of a film. Paul Rodriguez gives a great performance, portraying a house painter who runs for City Council and gets a real taste of the political world. His opponent, CCH Pounder, is marvelous as a former radical turned world weary politician. Una Damon is great as the campaign manager and Cliff Robertson really gives a down to earth, understated performance as the retiring councilman Rodriguez and Pounder hope to replace. One note; when I saw the listing for this film it was titled "The Race".

This is a great little movie, the kind that critics would have raved if it had achieved theatrical release. Some of the racial sterotypes pointed out are spot-on, as well as the political sell-outs that occur in reaction to them. I too stumbled upon it and was glad that I was late for work after watching it.

Every single possible way to smear and dig in a political race is used in this movie. Each of the two political foes gets to go through both good and bad moments as they claw to office. Former Stand up comedian Paul Rodriquez and the unappreciated CCH Pounder play the running mates well with Cliff Robertson(Spider-Man) as the retiring councilman, Una Damon as the political adviser to CCH Pounder, and Peter Krause("Sports Night" and "Six Feet Under") as the reporter. Eighties survivors Paul Bartel and Jennifer Balgobin have little roles. An odd little movie with a nice sense of humor that I purchased for Jennifer Balgobin and ended up not disappointed even with the usual short screen time of Jennifer Balgobin. No racial group is painted in an unfair way.