Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story Critic Reviews

For a film that depends so heavily on talking heads, it has both a dramatic arc and a sense of character development.Read the full review

A fascinating portrait of an almost likable rogue. You'd rather spend time with him than a lot of more upstanding citizens.Read the full review

If you want to hear juicy inside tales of the scams devised by Lee Atwater, the right-wing visionary of media-age dirty tricks, you'll find loads of them in Boogie Man.Read the full review

A hugely entertaining, efficiently crafted documentary about a ruthless, if undeniably clever, American political force.Read the full review

Generous in spirit and nimble in technique, this riveting documentary about the Republican operative (who died of a brain tumor in 1991) reveals a scrappy genius rife with contradictions.Read the full review

Boogie Man doesn't delve too deep into its subject's private life, beyond some cheap psychology positing his brother's horrible early death as the root of his winner-takes-all philosophy. But then, Atwater's work was his life.Read the full review

Boogie Man is nonetheless required viewing for anyone obsessed with the 2008 race.Read the full review

Deeply influential, even to his enemies, Atwater's career is viewed here with fascination and some sympathy.Read the full review

If there were a liberal equivalent to Fox News (no, not MSNBC, which is so much milk-fed veal to Rupert Murdoch's steak tartare), Boogie Man is the sort of programming it would thrive on.Read the full review