Reagan, 2024.
Directed by Sean McNamara.
Starring Dennis Quaid, David Henrie, Robert Davi, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mena Suvari, Jon Voight, Penelope Ann Miller, Lesley-Anne Down, Marshall R. Teague, Randy Wayne, Chris Massoglia, Mark Kubr, Robert Peters, Paul T. Taylor, Casey Graf, Will Wallace, Bryan Whorton, Sean Hankinson, Stephen Sherman, Ryan Whitney, Kevin Dillon, Jordan Matlock, Skip Schwink, Alex Sparrow, Scott Stapp, Bobby Ray Thompson III, Amanda Righetti, Justin Chatwin, Xander Berkeley, Jennifer O’Neill, Elya Baskin, Rachel Cannon, Trevor Donovan, Nick Searcy, Mark Moses, Olek Krupa, Pat Boone, Moriah, Daryl Cox, Eloisa Huggins, Jennifer Rader, Julianne Arrieta, Stephen Guarino, James Austin Kerr, Damon Carney, Heather Ashley Chase, Chris Freihofer, Dakota Kennedy, Hideo Kimura, John Gibson Miller, Scotty Gelt, Carson Cunningham, Nick Logan, Tom Partain, and Kevin Sorbo.
SYNOPSIS:
A drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.
Perhaps to the surprise of no one (especially when you factor in who is distributing and have basic knowledge of what everyone behind and in front of the camera stands for politically), director Sean McNamara’s Reagan is, to put it kindly, a disingenuous biopic. Split between two halves – one focusing on his life pre-presidency and the other across his elected terms – the screenplay can’t even be bothered to explore any of Ronald Reagan’s (played by a constipated-sounding Dennis Quaid, de-aged to hell and back from his 30s to 80s, with other actors stepping in to portray him anytime before then) flaws as a person or leader of the United States of America.
This is made crystal clear during a brief montage of his lowest point as president, technically acknowledging issues within the economy or the alarming amount of deaths caused by AIDS yet refusing to explore what he didn’t and could have done about any of them. Instead, the montage plays like a plea for sympathy, as if the filmmakers say, “Look at how bad things are under this presidency, which Ronald Reagan had absolutely nothing to do with.”
However, it would be too easy to rip apart this film based on its perception of Ronald Reagan and its cringe-conservative propaganda tone. There is no need to do so because the direction and screenplay (courtesy of Howard Klausner) are inept regardless of message or intent. This movie constantly rushes through information dumps (typically done through excessive narration or so many newspaper headlines that if one took a shot of alcohol every time one appeared, they would probably have alcohol poisoning 30 minutes in) that it forgets to display any emotional storytelling whatsoever.
Any photography ambition is rendered confounding, such as an overhead shot that sees a young Reagan looking up at a sign, except half of the letters are cut off from the image, meaning we don’t know what it says until the camera angle shifts. Furthermore, nearly every dialogue exchange is clunky and hampered by hilariously obvious ADR. Some baffling, hilarious needle-drops would be more jarring if I hadn’t already seen Dennis Quaid’s and Sean McNamara’s previous collaboration.
Sean McNamara and Howard Klausner don’t care about interrogating who Ronald Reagan is, even when it comes to their idealized envisioning of him as a standup man, exemplary POTUS, devoted husband, Communism frontline fighter, a Republican with conservative values, and a symbol of what Americans should strive to be. They want viewers to know and agree with that image but don’t care about crafting a compelling story around anything they believe.
Frankly, despite some occasionally decent period piece details, Reagan is a rambling catastrophe from beginning to end. For some inexplicable reason, the narration is done by a present-day Jon Voight (also de-aged across the film) as a composite KGB officer character who had been tracking Ronald Reagan from his early acting days, suspecting that if he ever got into politics, he would have what it takes to bring down the Soviet Union. There are glimpses of Reagan’s Hollywood career and first marriage to Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari) to his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild snuffing out communists within the industry (Kevin Dillon also plays Jack Warner) to accordingly meet cute with Nancy Reagan (Penelope Ann Miller) with ham-fisted romance that can’t even do the bare minimum of getting across why they fell in love with one another.
Sometimes, it feels like the filmmakers draw parallels between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Apparently, they are the same, having had elections “stolen” from them and having experienced routine “mistreatment” by the mainstream media. However, even if these are things someone does align with politically, that doesn’t mean it is given a compelling cinematic treatment.
Reagan is an exhaustingly propagandist and unwieldy slog that introduces more historical figures and characters than it knows what to do with (why this was not a series on some right-wing streaming service is puzzling), barreling its way through an entire life with such reckless speed that there is nothing to engage with. The few and far between overly sentimental beats are the only mildly interesting parts (but still hilarious) because, after roughly 2 hours, it is nice to see a sequence grounded in characters feeling things, even if it is annoyingly mawkish. Tear down this wall? More like tear down this screen and show me almost anything else.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
