Category Archives: Political Campaigning

2021, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Child abuse, Danish, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Danish Politics, Danish TV series, Disturbing Image, Emotional child abuse, Failed Mother, Foster Care, Missing Person, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Occasional gore, Orphans in Foster Care, Police Culture, Political Campaigning, Politicians, Psychopath, Serial Killer, Suspense, Thriller, Torture, Violent

The Chestnut Man (2021)

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From IMDB:

A young woman is found brutally murdered in a playground and one of her hands is missing. Above her hangs a small man made of chestnuts.

From Netflix:

At a grisly murder scene sits a figurine made of chestnuts. From  this creepy clue, two detectives hunt a killer linked to a politician’s missing child.

From Netflix you can stream the 6 episodes of this Danish serial killer series. Each episode runs a bit less than one hour.

“Seen one, seen them all” is almost a truism about serial killer series. Each such story involves detectives and victim families, many of whom have their own problems. But it is these individual personal touches that distinguish one series from another.  For that reason “The Chestnut Man” is not boring and not a waste of time. Nor is the production anything special.

2015, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, Based on true facts, Bolivia, Political Campaigning, Possibly depressing, Thought provoking, Violent

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015)

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From IMDB:

A battle-hardened American political consultant is sent to help re-elect a controversial president in Bolivia, where she must compete with a long-term rival working for another candidate.

Oddly enough there is a 2005 documentary with the exact same title that discusses American political campaign marketing tactics and their consequences.

Up to now I always thought of Sandra Bullock as a comedian. In this film, however, there is nothing funny about her role as Jane who is a take-no-prisoners stop-at-nothing campaign consultant.

Jane is additionally motivated to win because her opposing campaign consultant is her arch enemy from earlier campaigns, Pat Candy played by Billy Bob Thorton. Just the fact that Thorton is in this film makes it very likely that this film is worth seeing.

Joaquim de Almeida plays the Bolivian candiate that Jane is promoting. You have seen this Portuguese actor in many presentations but I suspect you do not know his name. In fact, I found him in an IMDB list of “Most underrated European actors in hollywood”.

However, the film is rightfully depressing because it rings so true. It is almost as if the film was motivated by our current presidential campaign with its almost entirely negative atmosphere.

As a drama the film could easily have more of an effect than a documentary. At the very least, it will reach a larger audience.

Expect no happy ending.