Dick (1999)

Directed by Andrew Fleming. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya, Will Ferrell, Bruce McCulloch, Devin Gummersall, Dave Foley, Saul Rubinek, Teri Garr, Harry Shearer, Jim Breuer, Ted McGinley, Ana Gasteyer, Ryan Reynolds. [R]

Bright comedic take on the Watergate scandal, suggesting that the corruption was uncovered by a pair of clueless teenage girls, Betsy (Dunst) and Arlene (Williams), who wander away from a White House tour and stumble across various incriminating schemes and conversations without ever figuring out what’s going on; they even meet President Nixon (Hedaya, in a hysterical caricature performance) and are given the “official” job of dog-walkers for Checkers. Though the satire can get clumsy at times, and writers Fleming and Sheryl Longin lean too often on the repeated joke of the president’s first name being a crass homonym, it’s still good fun most of the way. Likely to be best appreciated by those with knowledge of the real-life figures and events (and how each are twisted or exaggerated in some way for comic effect), but anyone can enjoy jokes about drug-laced cookies calming tensions with the Soviet Union or how Arlene gets a schoolgirl crush on Tricky Dick, plastering her bedroom wall with his pictures and dreamily writing “Mrs. Arlene Nixon” in her notebook. Fine cast rarely blunders, featuring several members of the “Kids in the Hall” and “Saturday Night Live” acting troupes. G. D. Spradlin and French Stewart have bit parts.

72/100