The Butler

The Butler (2013) is Lee Daniels' drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Forest Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, who spent three decades serving coffee to the men who ran the Oval Office.

Born to Southern sharecroppers and raised amid casual cruelty, Cecil trains himself into a flawless servant and lands inside the White House. From there he watches presidents come and go while the country burns with the fight for civil rights. His own home holds a second war: his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) sinks into drinking, and his eldest son Louis (David Oyelowo) joins the movement, taking beatings at lunch-counter sit-ins. The father keeps his head down; the son wants to force change. That fracture runs straight through the film.

The story takes its cue from a newspaper profile of Eugene Allen, a real butler who worked under eight White House administrations. Jane Fonda, Alan Rickman, Robin Williams and John Cusack turn up as a parade of presidents and first ladies. Stream The Butler (2013) online on iFILM.