I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty down these days. See, one of our most beloved presidents of all time is soon leaving office. And this makes me one sad little bear. Lately it’s like he’s been on his farewell tour. He was in Beijing, yucking it up with Kobe, Phelps and Kerri Walsh. He rubbed shoulders with Bob Costas and Hu Jintao, enunciating “Heilonghiang” with a phonetic elegance that would have made William F. Buckley proud. And soon … soon it will all be gone.

It’s kind of turned into a pageant and Oliver Stone’s W. is the half-time show. Stone is one of our most ambitious directors and when you go for broke like he does you either make something brilliant (JFK, Nixon) or awful (Alexander). Either way, I’ve found they’re worth my time. When it’s on I still watch Alexander even if it’s a total car crash. No, because it’s a car crash. In highway motor vehicle terms, Alexander is equivalent to a twelve-car pile-up. Filled with children. And kittens.

What can I say, I enjoy watching the darn thing. I watch for Val Kilmer’s pretty killer performance, the awesome battle scenes, the terrible casting of Colin Farrell and the parallels between Angelina Jolie’s Olympias and Grendel’s mother. So whether W. is one of the better films of 2008 or an absolute car wreck, I’m there.

I love the casting all-around. Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld? It makes me think Donald Rumsfeld knew a movie was coming and purposely styled himself after Scott Glenn. Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush might be on the money. Josh Brolin as “W.” is a surprising and inspired choice. Richard Dreyfuss already played Dick Cheney in The American President so that should work out. Now Thandie Newton is waaaay too pretty to play Condoleezza Rice, but OK. Toby Jones is a tinier version of Karl Rove methinks, but I see Stone working there. My favorite piece of casting has to be Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer. Any chance for a spin-off for the adventures of Fleischer after this? I’ll cross my fingers with you.

If you’ve seen the trailer you can already tell this is going to be an examination of how Bush came to be the guy he is today and that a good deal of it stems from his relationship with poppa Bush. Tonally, this movie looks much lighter than, say, Nixon (and you can get a taste of the differences
right here), which would help distinguish it from Stone’s other presidential projects (although Nixon is a lot funnier than people give it credit for).

It’s an odd way to spend time in a theater, watching a movie painting a portrait of a current standing president, only a few days away from an election — the last word from a filmmaker hell-bent not to repeat himself. Yes, many of his movies deal with history, but each film is unique in its approach to the material. Now it’s going too far to call Stone a cinematic historian. In fact, it misses the point. He’s not so much interested in history as he is our amazing ability to repeat it. I’m not sure what our future will be in November, but I do know a few days earlier I’ll be in my favorite movie theater chomping down some popcorn to watch Stone’s next work of madness.