Bob Roberts

Tim Robbins's first film as director, a mockumentary he wrote and stars in. Bob Roberts is a wealthy, self-assured conservative running for the Senate who sings folk songs. He calls himself a rebel; the rebellion amounts to positioning himself against the protest folk tradition of the sixties. How the joke works is visible in the album titles, which invert Bob Dylan's: The Freewheelin' Bob Roberts, The Times They Are A-Changin' Back and Bob on Bob. Robbins actually wrote and performed the songs, and the lyrics are the sharpest thing in the film. The character came out of a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1986, and Robbins turned him into a feature six years later. The documentary form is deliberate too: the camera carries the gaze of the journalists chasing Roberts, and that gaze stops nothing. Who it is for: viewers who like political satire, mockumentary and campaign stories. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a balanced political view, since the film openly takes a side and does not pretend otherwise.