Bob Roberts
R, 101 min.
Directed by Tim Robbins, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, Alan Rickman, Brian Murray.

This Tim Robbins-helmed political satire about demogougery makes for an appropriate election-season re-release. “The character of Bob Roberts (Robbins) is a folksinger/self-made millionaire/senatorial candidate. He is a rebel conservative who appropriates liberal touchstones of the Sixties and Seventies for his own agenda. He is a money and information monger whose bid for public service is merely a means to personal ends. He is a populist stumping for self-interest. Non-believers call him a ‘crypto-fascist.’ Bob Roberts skirts most of the hard, really substantive issues involved in an election campaign ñ but that may just be one of its points about demagogues.”

This article appears in September 18 • 1992.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.