Miss Sloane

And A Voting Convict

“Miss Sloane” is one for the political optimists, and also one for the political cynics. This thriller, directed by John Madden (“Shakespeare In Love”, not the NFL), is about a bloodthirsty lobbyist playing a dirty game for a supposedly righteous cause. Jessica Chastain is the titular badass, but instead of doling out justice with fisticuffs, she’s behind the scenes, a mover and shaker shifting the balance of power. 

You know this is from a more optimistic time because it begins with Miss Sloane having to testify in Congress for ethics violations. Remember when Washington used to hold people responsible for their crimes? This was filmed before the 2016 election, and once Donald Trump was elected, this film opened weeks later to historically bad numbers for a wide release. The public has spoken: criming is coooool!

Miss Sloane runs a lobbying firm that, at the film’s start, is recruited to help push a bill that would expand background checks on firearm purchases. Back then, you kiddies may not remember this, but this was a bipartisan issue that had the attention of even some of the more awful people in D.C. Nowadays, some Republicans would rather cut off a finger than surrender to any bill with a whiff of gun control, even with gun violence being the leading cause of death among children nationwide, by far. Shouldn’t kids be killed by typically-stupid kid behavior? Growing up Latino, I lived in a household with a gun, and the biggest dangers to my health were every stupid sharp object I played with and every stupid method I crossed the street without looking. Now, 48% of white American males own a gun, and I wonder if it’s the same for them as it was for me. Given the surge in public shootings over these last couple of decades, I guess not.

Sloane tackles this challenge like a series of chess matches, wielding the power of rhetoric and p.r. to battle those opposing the bill. This is one of those movies that could have ended up with a bunch of no-names pitted against Chastain’s star power – indeed, it’s easy to imagine this movie with a more forceful leading lady (or even a man) who insists they shouldn’t be overshadowed by a notable name. But Chastain has too many good people wanting to work with her. You sense this is a lower-budgeted film, but they still have Michael Stuhlbarg killing it as a rival lobbyist, John Lithgow as a scumbag senator and even a surprisingly flexible performance by walking Ken Doll Jake Lacy as… well, his role is full of surprises, I’ll leave it at that.

Compellingly, this becomes a matchup between Chastain and the stellar Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Mbatha-Raw is the young recruit who lands on Sloane’s team and quickly finds herself thrown to the wolves, a sacrificial lamb for Sloane’s larger aims. The movie’s moral arc is intriguing – we know that Sloane is headed for a congressional hearing, but after that intro, we flash back to her taking on the gun lobby. The Sorkin-like machinations of Sloane’s lobbying firm convinces you that she arrives at that hearing a hero chastised by corrupt forces, a natural leader who bent the rules in order to change the law. But her adversarial stance towards Mbatha-Raw’s Esme, which leads to a very dark corner, complicates any straightforward moralistic reading.

“Miss Sloane” is written by a former lawyer named Jonathan Perera, who has no other credits to his name (he also worked with Steven Knight on a screenplay for a remake of “The Red Circle”). It’s why the details largely ring true, except for the inevitable third act twist-on-twist-on-twist. “Miss Sloane” naturally goes a bit too Hollywood, leaning toward a contrived, schematic close that has unfortunate echoes of the risible “The Life Of David Gale”. It feels like a commercial concession, which is amusing considering this played to empty theaters overall. It looks even worse today, considering how gun control has moved backwards, and a new mass shooting literally every day in America prompts Republicans terrified of the influence of the NRA to either immediately avoid the topic of guns or publicly fondle their own firearms in order to “own the libs” while parents bury their children. I say these things to try to shame Republicans for their dishonest views, but if they felt shame they wouldn’t be supporting a rapist for President. In prison, rapists get assaulted. In Washington, they get elected. Seems a little backwards.

I am writing this in advance, but it’s an important day for me. Unlike many convicts, today is a day I will vote for President. I haven’t voted since the 2012 election. This is important to me for so many reasons. In the last two Presidential elections, I was in prison, I had no voice, I was a bystander, not a part of democracy. I watched as Americans went to the polls and some made decisions that were frankly pretty wild. This will be my first time voting against Donald Trump, which gives me great pride. It’s an opportunity to stand up, as an American, and say that he doesn’t represent my values, the values of my neighbors, the values of my country. 

I will be honest, the next few weeks will be ugly. Because if he loses, he will deny and deny, and entreat his goonish enforcers to stop the election, throw away Americans’ votes (MY vote) and use every trick at his disposal to avoid the perception that he lost. There will be public statements. There will be grotesque A.I. There will probably be violence. There will be Republican cowardice the likes of which America has NEVER seen. And if he legitimately wins, I’m not sure what this website will be. Good luck, America. Don’t screw this up like I watched you screw it up in 2016.