18½

This is not a documentary nor an accurate history of events but a humorous send-up of the scandal itself. The story itself is a funny-mirror reflection of the (not so) mysterious tape erasure.

Meandering away from Watergate, most of the film explores and revels in eccentric characters and their interactions. Subtle humor and satire abound if you pay attention and let down your hair: conspiracy theories involving Wonder Bread and ITT; Bossa nova music; broken tape machines; mysterious fishermen; one-eyed desk clerks.

Smatterings of the missing 18½ minute recording are revealed and they are nothing more than what we expect although amplified through a filter of ridiculousness and cartoonish caricatures. It really helps to be a student of Watergate and recognize the various characters like Mark Felt (who is referenced hilariously), H. R. Haldeman, Al Haig and Rosemary Woods in order to "get" all the jokes.

This film is an unexpected surprise. Wry, intelligent humor, a brisk pace and wonderful characters make for winning combination. Worth a second viewing to catch all those subtle cues and clues. Bravo, Mr. Mirvish.

It's 1974. White House transcriptionist -- someone who takes recordings and converts them into written records -- Willa Fitzgerald has the missing tape recording of Nixon that everyone is hot for. She meets up with reporter John Magaro and they go to a motel in Maryland to listen to the tapes, but his reel-to-reel player is broken. However, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Catherine Curtain at the cabin next to theirs have been listening to a tape of bossa nova non-stop.

It plays more like an extended anecdote than a story, so it's good they have some talent in place that can play it for comedy, like Richard Kind as the one-eyed motel owner, and Alexander Woodbury as a fisherman.

It's certainly an entertaining satire, if not particularly deep. Still, who knew that Bruce Campbell could do such a good Nixon impersonation?

My alphabetical run through Sky Movies is updated by the arrival of another new film with numbers in the title. This one is a . . . Comedy drama, I guess . . . With apparently many references to the Watergate scandal which, I have to admit, I only know the bare minimum about.

Connie (Willa Fitzgerald) is a white house stenographer who accidentally discovers a recording of Nixon (Bruce Campbell) and his aides listening to and discussing the missing 18 1/2 minutes from the Watergate tapes. She meets journalist Paul (John Magaro) and they decide to head to a waterfront motel complex to listen to the tape. Posing as husband and wife, the pair meet some interesting characters at the venue, and are forced to turn to another couple for help, when their reel to reel tape player doesn't work.

I like the pairing of Fitzgerald and Magaro and I thought they had good chemistry together. Whilst they're getting to play really broad characters, I liked Vondie Curtis-Hall and Catherine Curtin as the married couple that the central pair approach too. I also liked that there were a lot of subtler moments in the film, plot hidden in dialogue and there was a genuine surprise at the end that I didn't see coming.

I really didn't like the film though. I think movies can go awry for any number of reasons, budgetary, application, conflict on set. Here though, I feel like this is exactly the movie that Dan Mirvish wants it to be. It is quirky and off beat and they aren't things that I usually dislike, but it didn't feel in service of anything here. There are ideas in the second half of the film that take it too far outside of the realms of reality and that eccentric approach to the story feels forced. Quirk for quirks sake, rather than trying to find an original take.

Happy to read that several reviewers found more in this than I did, but for me it gave me a sword and I stuck it in, I'm not twisting it with relish though.

The movie has a fascinating premise: a lowly Washington stenographer in the early 1970s comes across a tape of Richard Nixon and his henchmen listening to the missing 18 and a half minutes from the "Nixon Tapes." Problem is, the filmmaker does all he can to avoid telling the story. The movie is a strange period piece, a vehicle for showing off retro fashions and furnishings. Great attention to detail in those departments, but the story was utterly neglected. The actor playing Richard Nixon doesn't even sound like him.

The film has a great premise but it is very poorly executed. The film should be a thriller but it dissappears into weird sub plots which add nothing to the story and rather then draw you in just make you think what the hell has this got to do with anything.

It spins off direction so much that you lose interest in what should have been an interesting subject.

The extra characters are ridiculous left wing stereotypes that are just annoying and wish weren't in the film. It hard to tell whether this was aimed at discrediting left wing politics or if the director actually believes this.

Such a waste of a good idea.