Barry Levinson is worth watching for the freedom he gives actors and his ear for conversation. Wag the Dog makes appalling people entertaining company, though we wish its satire asked harder questions.
Fi1m perspective
Dustin Hoffman’s producer in Wag the Dog (1997) has a war to invent and treats it as a job worth doing properly. Levinson makes his professional satisfaction funny without asking us to excuse the deception. We laughed at that pride in getting the work done, because Hoffman gives the producer’s vanity such unembarrassed confidence. Levinson knows how long we will listen to someone objectionable if the conversation is good enough.
He began writing for television variety shows, then worked on scripts for Mel Brooks’s films, including High Anxiety (1977). His directing debut, Diner (1982), which he also wrote, began a recurring group of Baltimore-set films about family, community and growing up. The breakthrough with Rain Man (1988) led into a stretch of major studio work, including the biographical crime drama Bugsy (1991). Those shifts in subject are worth keeping in mind before treating him simply as a comedy director.
He allows improvisation rather than binding actors to a rigid shot list, and Wag the Dog gives us reason to value that flexibility. Hoffman’s expansiveness works against Robert De Niro’s economical performance as spin doctor Conrad Brean. Levinson gets the pairing right: their different ways of working make their conversations worth following. David Mamet and Hilary Henkin supply the quick dialogue, so the pleasure cannot all be credited to the man directing it.
The reservation is that Wag the Dog does not examine the political system as closely as it enjoys the plotters. Its confidence can make the satire seem more searching than it is. We recommend it, but for the performances and comic exchanges, not as a complete account of how deception succeeds.
His later directing work turns towards television with The Wizard of Lies (2017), a biographical drama, and the series Dopesick (2021). That is a return to the medium of his early writing, though not to variety comedy. Start with Wag the Dog if an evening with capable, appalling people sounds agreeable.
Biography
Barry Levinson is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he studied at American University before moving to Los Angeles, where he began as a comedy writer for The Carol Burnett Show and collaborated with Mel Brooks on films including Silent Movie (1976) and High Anxiety (1977).
Levinson made his directorial debut with Diner (1982). He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Rain Man (1988). Other notable films include The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bugsy (1991), which he also produced, and Wag the Dog (1997), on which he served as director and producer. He continues to work in film and television, including as executive producer and director on the 2021 miniseries Dopesick.
