35 political movies to stream right now
Between the Golden Age of Television unfolding on your favorite premium cable channels every Sunday night and the fake news, ugly Congressional conflicts, and sordid revelations going down on your favorite political news shows, you might say that, as far as TV is concerned, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.
So do you feel guilty tuning into Girls and concerning yourself with Hannah’s freelance writing projects when you know that people are filibustering in Washington? Could you not focus properly on Big Little Lies when the outcome of a real-life FBI investigation is a more pressing mystery than which rich person died at an Audrey Hepburn-themed fundraiser? Are the Real Housewives too shallow? Is Prison Break too escapist (on too many levels)?
There’s an easy fix for this! Reconcile your desire to relax and enjoy a great story with your sense of political urgency in our fraught hyperpartisan climate by watching a movie that satisfies both impulses. Here are 35 great political flicks to stream right now.
Milk (2008)
Sean Penn won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s biopic about the equal rights activist who would become California’s first openly gay elected official.
Available on: Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire, widely regarded as one of the greatest comedies of all time, is essential viewing for any cinephile or political junkie.
Available on: Starz, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Game Change (2012)
Jay Roach’s Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning drama chronicles the 2008 election, with Julianne Moore giving Tina Fey a run for her money as the greatest portrayer of Sarah Palin (and winning a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and an Emmy, among other accolades, for her performance).
Available on: HBO, Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Recount (2008)
Four years before Game Change and eight years before the events it dramatizes, writer Danny Strong and director Jay Roach teamed up for their first election feature, about the contentious result of the 2000 election.
Available on: HBO, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Being There (1979)
Peter Sellers stars in Hal Ashby’s adaptation of Jerzy Kosiski’s political satire about a simple, sheltered gardener who finds himself, entirely by accident, in the president’s inner circle.
Available on: HBO, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Election (1999)
Reese Witherspoon snagged her first major award nomination when she got a Golden Globe nod for playing Tracy Flick, an ambitious high school senior running for student body president, in Alexander Payne’s dark comedy.
Available on: Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone’s political thriller, which stars Kevin Costner as New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, dramatizes the events surrounding the JFK assassination - and attracted a good deal of controversy for its interpretation.
Available on: Hulu, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
The War Room (1993)
Throw it back to the 1992 presidential election with Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker’s acclaimed documentary, which follows James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as it chronicles Bill Clinton’s successful campaign. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1994.
Available on: Filmstruck, iTunes, Amazon
Bob Roberts (1992)
Tim Robbins made his directorial debut with this political mockumentary, which he also wrote and stars in. Robbins plays the title character, a conservative folk singer running for Senate.
Available on: Netflix
All the President’s Men (1976)
Just a few years after Watergate, Alan J. Pakula put the scandal onscreen in his 1976 classic, which stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporters who uncovered Richard Nixon’s misdeeds in the Washington Post.
Available on: HBO, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Bulworth (1998)
Warren Beatty directed, co-wrote, and starred in this political comedy as a senator who, exhausted by the political game, hires an assassin to kill him amid his bid for reelection. Relieved that the end is near, he starts speaking his mind on the campaign trail - and voters finally love him.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Weiner (2016)
Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s lauded documentary follows Anthony Weiner, two years after a sexting scandal led to his resignation from Congress, as he makes an attempt at a political comeback and campaigns for the Democratic nomination in the 2013 New York City mayoral election.
Available on: Hulu, Showtime, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Wag the Dog (1997)
Washington meets Hollywood in Barry Levinson’s political comedy, which stars Robert De Niro as a spin-doctor who, desperate to cover up a sex scandal as the President seeks reelection, hires a movie producer (Dustin Hoffman) who invents a fictional war to distract the American people from their leader’s misdeeds.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
The Special Relationship (2010)
In the Richard Loncraine-directed final installment in screenwriter Peter Morgan’s “Blair Trilogy” (after 2003’s TV drama The Deal and 2006’s The Queen) - all three films of which examine the political career of Tony Blair - Michael Sheen plays the former Prime Minister and Dennis Quaid plays Bill Clinton.
Available on: HBO, Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Rosewater (2014)
Jon Stewart made his directorial debut with this adaptation of journalist Maziar Bahari’s bestselling memoir Then They Came for Me. Gael García Bernal stars as Bahari, who was imprisoned and cruelly interrogated in Iran after reporting on violence he witnessed there.
Available on: Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
In the Loop (2009)
A feature-length spinoff of the British TV series The Thick of It, this Armando Iannucci-directed comedy satirizes contemporary British and American politics. When the American President and British Prime Minister want to start a war in the Middle East, a large cast of political players frantically maneuver to prevent or facilitate it.
Available on: Netflix, Hulu, Filmstruck, Sundance Now, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play
Lincoln (2012)
Steven Spielberg’s drama depicting the last few months of Abraham Lincoln’s life collected a whopping 12 Oscar nominations, and Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Best Actor statuette for his transcendent performance as the 16th president.
Available on: Hulu, Showtime, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Primary (1960)
This early political documentary, written and produced by Robert Drew and edited by D.A. Pennebaker, chronicled the Wisconsin primary between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they competed for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Even more significant than its status as a record of American political history, however, is the groundbreaking film’s enormous influence on documentary filmmaking style.
Available on: Filmstruck, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Secret Honor (1984)
Robert Altman was known for making films with huge ensemble casts, but this political drama of his, based on a play by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, has exactly one actor in it. Philip Baker Hall stars as Richard Nixon, who spends an evening pacing around his study, drinking whiskey, and delivering a stream-of-consciousness monologue reflecting upon his choices and failures.
Available on: Filmstruck, iTunes, Amazon
The Ides of March (2011)
George Clooney directed and starred in this adaptation of the play Farragut North by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon. Ryan Gosling plays a junior campaign staffer to Clooney’s presidential candidate, and learns how to play dirty within his own team as well as across party lines.
Available on: Hulu, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
The Manchurian Candidate (1962, 2004)
Make it a Manchurian marathon! John Frankenheimer’s Oscar-nominated 1962 thriller, which stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Angela Lansbury, is available to stream on iTunes and Tribeca Shortlist on Amazon. Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake put Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, and Meryl Streep in the lead roles, and can be found on various platforms.
Available on: Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
All the King’s Men (1949)
Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel All the King’s Men, which chronicles the rise of an ambitious politician, won the writer a Pulitzer Prize; three years later, Robert Rossen’s film noir adaptation took home the Oscar for Best Picture, plus two other wins and four more nominations. (Warren’s novel was adapted for the screen again in 2006, to less than stellar reviews.)
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Thirteen Days (2000)
This dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis, directed by Roger Donaldson, stars Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy and Kevin Costner as Kenneth P. O’Donnell, the president’s close friend and aide in the White House.
Available on: Starz, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
The highest-grossing documentary of all time, Michael Moore’s furious indictment of the George W. Bush administration won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2004 - as well as Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Supporting Actress, respectively, for Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Britney Spears (of whom the doc includes footage in which she expresses her support of the president).
Available on: YouTube
The Candidate (1972)
Robert Redford plays the candidate in The Candidate, Michael Ritchie’s satire of the American political campaign system. Jeremy Larner won an Oscar for his screenplay, in which an idealistic young lawyer agrees to run for Senate against an unbeatable opponent, planning to lose the race but use the campaign as a platform to spread his beliefs. When his poll numbers start rising, however, he finds himself playing the game rather than gaming the system.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Z (1969)
Costa-Gavras’ classic dark satire is one of only five films to have been nominated for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture at the Academy Awards (it won the former). A barely disguised account of the 1963 murder of a Greek politician, it tells the story of the assassination of a prominent leftist and the ensuing investigation and political aftermath.
Available on: Filmstruck, iTunes, Amazon
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
1939 is famously one of the greatest years in the history of American cinema, and Frank Capra’s beloved political drama is up there with The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind in the reasons why. Jimmy Stewart plays Mr. Smith, a naïve novice Senator who stands up to the corruption he encounters in the political system.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Frost/Nixon (2009)
Frank Langella and Michael Sheen go head-to-head as the disgraced Richard Nixon and the British journalist David Frost, respectively, in Ron Howard’s adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play of the same name, which was based on Frost’s famous 1977 TV interviews with Nixon.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Nixon (1995)
Anthony Hopkins plays Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone’s biopic about the controversial president - the filmmaker’s second out of three films about different Commanders-in-Chief (following JFK and followed by 2008’s W.). It came about a year and a half after its subject’s death, and the Nixon family condemned the film.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Seven Days in May (1964)
Two years after his The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer got back into political filmmaking with this thriller, based on the novel of the same name by political journalists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II. Burt Lancaster stars as an Air Force general who, with other military leaders, orchestrates a coup d’etat over the course of seven days.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
The American President (1995)
Amid this long string of tense political thrillers and cynical satires, doesn’t a little romance sound nice? Aaron Sorkin wrote and Rob Reiner directed The American President, in which Michael Douglas plays the Commander-in-Chief who falls for Annette Bening’s environmental lobbyist.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Mitt (2014)
Greg Whiteley’s Netflix documentary, which screened at Sundance in 2014, follows Mitt Romney during his unsuccessful campaigns for the 2008 Republican nomination and in the 2012 presidential election.
Available on: Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Advise & Consent (1962)
Based on Allen Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, Otto Preminger’s neo-noir stars Henry Fonda as a newly appointed Secretary of State. When he lies about his dark past during his Senate confirmation hearing, the president and the appointment committee chair are both dragged into dirty politics along with him.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Dave (1993)
Kevin Kline stars as Dave, an unassuming Washingtonian who bears an uncanny resemblance to the president, in Ivan Reitman’s comedy. When the sleazy POTUS goes into a coma, some ambitious and unscrupulous members of the White House staff ask Dave to take his place.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
George Clooney’s black-and-white drama picked up six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Clooney. David Strathairn stars (and was also nominated for an Oscar) as Edward R. Murrow, the journalist who publicly feuded with Senator Joseph McCarthy over the latter’s anti-Communist witch hunts.
Available on: iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
