Game Change: A Wild Movie

I’ve pretty much never had the urge to write about a movie before, but I happened to be awake until 3:00 in the morning the other week waiting for a cast list to come out (don’t worry, I got it) and to pass the time I watched the HBO original film Game Change. And I have to tell the world about it.

This movie came out in 2012 so get ready for an entirely irrelevant review. Scratch that; this isn’t even going to be a review; it’s going to be a set of confused feelings in response to quite possibly the wildest movie I’ve seen in a while. 

Game Change is about Sarah Palin’s experience in John McCain’s 2008 campaign. If you’re anything like me, the 2008 election cycle is not a memory so much as an abstract concept where we vaguely know it turned out right in the end. (Specifically, my 2008 election memory involves going to bed on election night and asking my mom to wake me up wearing a red shirt or blue shirt so I’d know who won. And my mom inexplicably really wanted to wear red the next day so she came in wearing red and waving a blue shirt in front of her like a matador. Anyway.) 

The first 20 minutes of the movie are about John McCain’s miraculous win in the Republican primaries that year, and how he managed to get the nomination against all odds. Inspiring music plays as he wins South Carolina and Super Tuesday and goes from underdog to frontrunner in just a few weeks. And then once he’s got the nomination, ominous music plays and they show footage of Obama giving a speech. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t sit there under my covers at 3:00 in the morning thinking “Booooo who is this guy? Get him out of here. McCain for America.” Movies can brainwash you.

Game Change isn’t any kind of Republican propaganda though. Pinky promise. It portrays Sarah Palin as a total nut job. She has to be taught the basic history of World War II, and she has a full mental breakdown in debate prep, and she tells her staff that she wants to be Vice President so she doesn’t have to go back to Alaska. (Understandable). She comes across as fully unhinged, which is scary considering she was almost the Vice President. Palin is played by Julianne Moore, who completely disappears into the role. If I can be unironic for a moment, I highly recommend watching this movie because her Palin impression will make you forget Tina Fey’s ever existed. 

And the really wacky part is that, when she’s not being a nut job, Sarah Palin comes across as pretty relatable. We’ve all been there: you’re just living your day-to-day, making ends meet, taking care of your family. And then a presidential campaign plucks you from obscurity because it needs a woman on the ticket, and you spend $150,000 on your wardrobe, and you do a Katie Couric interview where you fail to name a single newspaper that has ever existed, and then you “go rogue” and start sabotaging your own campaign. And then you lose the election and, yes, go back to Alaska.

The poster for this movie has Palin standing in front of a McCain/Palin campaign sign, blocking the letter “l” so it reads “McCain/Pain.” Particularly subtle? No. But a good summary of the movie? Yes. 

Bottom line: you all have to go watch this thing, and you probably should do it at 3:00 in the morning for maximum effect.