Barry Levinson is a master of many genres, and he likes to cast movie stars that will allow him to bring out their full talents. This is certainly true of his timeless political satire, which popularized the American phrase “wag the dog” around the world. Dustin Hoffman as a smug Hollywood producer, the brilliant Robert De Niro as a political spin doctor, and a grandiose hoax that the pair stage in order to draw public attention away from the president’s sexual misconduct with an underage Firefly Girl on the eve of an election – these are the ingredients the director ingeniously combines to mock the machinations of power, the media hunt for scandals, and the willingness of the public to allow its opinions to be blatantly manipulated.