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100
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie is a satire that contains just enough realistic ballast to be teasingly plausible; like "Dr. Strangelove," it makes you laugh, and then it makes you wonder.
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91
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
If the result is often as glib as the targets it's satirizing, it's also driven by a cruelly distilled joy. Wag the Dog is an ode to the thrill of deception, a thrill embodied in Hoffman's inspired performance.
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90
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The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Wag the Dog, the poison-tipped political satire that's as scarily plausible as it is swift, hilarious and impossible to resist.
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90
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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A gloriously cynical black comedy that functions as a wicked smart satire on the interlocking worlds of politics and show business, Wag the Dog confirms every awful thought you've ever had about media manipulation and the gullibility of the American public. And it has a great deal of fun doing it.
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88
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ReelViews James Berardinelli
This is one of Levinson's best films, and the screenplay, co-penned by noted writer David Mamet (along with Hilary Henkin), is brilliantly on-target.
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75
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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Levinson's sure touch keeps audiences smiling and manages to maintain an aura of good nature in a film that, at heart, offers a caustic, almost bitter vision of American institutions and contemporary politics.
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75
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Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Barry Levinson's dark comedy is sly, funny, and unnerving.
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75
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San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
It's a testament to what happens when all the right ingredients come together. Wag the Dog is the best political satire in years.
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50
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Washington Post Stephen Hunter
So insidey it's almost parochial.
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40
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Washington Post Desson Thomson
A blithely unfunny, low-budget comedy from director Barry Levinson.
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