Man of the Year

Man of the Year (2006) is a political satire with a thriller twist you can watch online on iFILM. Barry Levinson directs Robin Williams as Tom Dobbs, a sharp-tongued talk show host who jokingly runs for president and somehow lands in the White House.

Dobbs has spent years mocking Washington from behind a desk. When a fan dares him to actually run, he enters the race as an independent, trading slick promises for blunt jokes and honest jabs. The country, fed up with politics as usual, votes him in. Then Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), an engineer at the firm behind the new electronic voting machines, spots a glitch that may have handed Dobbs the win. Reporting it puts her career and her safety on the line.

Levinson pairs campaign-trail comedy with a paranoid streak about who really counts the votes. Williams swings between stand-up energy and genuine unease, and Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum and brief turns from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fill out the room. It works best as a film about the illusion of choice rather than the triumph of an outsider. Stream Man of the Year (2006) online on iFILM.