Jeffrey K. Lyles' Movie Files

Sidney Ray Baldwin/Lionsgate
George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) with Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss, background left) in “W.”

In “W.,” Oliver Stone paints a portrait of President George W. Bush that is at times mocking, sympathetic, dynamic and revealing, but always entertaining.

Josh Brolin (“No Country For Old Men”) deserves a lot of the credit and his performance as the titular character should merit a Best Actor nomination. Stone starts and ends the film with Bush alone in a deserted baseball stadium, almost suggesting that for Bush — this is the one arena in life he’s happiest.

Through a series of flashbacks, Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser show Bush as a free-spirited, privileged never-do-well stuck in his father George Bush’s (James Cromwell, “24”) shadow who consistently tells W that he is disappointed in him.

After one of W’s drunken escapades, Bush Sr. chews him with one of the film’s best lines asking “What do you think you are? A Kennedy?” More