Synopsis
Mock documentary about an upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate written and directed by actor Tim Robbins. Bob Roberts is a folksinger with a difference: He offers tunes that protest welfare chiselers, liberal whining, and the like. As the filmmakers follow his campaign, Robbins gives needle-sharp insight into the way candidates manipulate the media.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Tim RobbinsBob Roberts
- Giancarlo EspositoBugs Raplin
- Ray WiseChet MacGregor
- Alan RickmanLukas Hart III
- Gore VidalSenator Brickley Paiste
- Brian MurrayTerry Manchester
- Rebecca JenkinsDelores Perrigrew
- Harry LennixFranklin Dockett
- John OttavinoClark Anderson
- Robert StantonBart Macklerooney
Recommandations
- 80
Variety
Both a stimulating social satire and, for thinking people, a depressing commentary on the devolution of the American political system. - 80
Empire
An over-strung last act aside, this is funny, brilliant and sickening all at the same time. - 78
Austin Chronicle
This Tim Robbins-helmed political satire about demogougery makes for an appropriate election-season re-release. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
I like Bob Roberts - I like its audacity, its freedom to say the obvious things about how our political process has been debased - but if it had been only about campaign tactics and techniques, I would have liked it more. - 75
Washington Post
Filmed in the mock-documentary style pioneered by acknowledged mentor Robert Altman, it does for baby-kissing phonies what This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal poseurs. - 70
Chicago Reader
Robbins is attempting too much here, but the 70 percent or so that he brings off borders on delightful. - 70
The New York Times
A very funny, sometimes prescient satire of American politics, and of the comparatively small, voting portion of the electorate that makes a Bob Roberts phenomenon possible. - 70
Newsweek
Robbins's gutsy directorial debut isn't seamless art, but so what? After a summer in Hollywood fantasyland, at last we have an American movie that rattles our cage-and pokes a sharp spear into the body politic. Now that's entertainment.
