• It is a testament to Sorkin’s pen and the actors involved that even if he’s not much of a director, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is absolutely riveting
  • It opens on Lyndon Johnson footage—and proceeds to engage all the players in a sort of round-up montage all before the opening titles.
  • Cutting, rat-a-tat trademark Sorkin dialogue- “apparently I’m paying you for your wisdom”
  • Since 1992 with A Few Good Men (this too, an engaging legal drama)- Sorkin has been one of the best screenwriters and writers of dialogue period- and this does not disappoint.
  • Every character in the cast speaks in Sorkin. It isn’t reality- but that’s ok- Wilder, Woody, Bergman all write the same way. Everyone comes off as strikingly clever
  • The ensemble amazes all the way on down – Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance—but nobody comes away looking better than Sacha Baron Cohen. He’ll go down being known for Borat—but what a role for him here. Certainly a best supporting actor should be coming.
  • Sorkin uses Abbie Hoffman’s (played by Baron Cohen) stand-up comedy to intertwine with a flashback and court testimony in another well-edited sequence
  • The finale is weak. It is as if Sorkin doesn’t trust the writing and the performance enough so he has to pump in the emotion with the swelling music- it cuts the legs out from under the scene
  • Recommend but not a top 10 of the year quality film. I hate comparing films like this but Sorkin’s lack of visual prowess is in sharp contrast to fellow screenwriter-of-a-generation-like talent Charlie Kaufman and his 2020 film I’m Thinking of Ending Things