W.

Director Oliver Stone and writer Stanley Weiser trace the career of George W. Bush (Josh Brolin), from drunken frat boy screw-up to clueless White House buffoon bemoaning his failure to earn his father’s respect (“Poppy always loved Jeb best!”). Stone and Weiser purvey the expected laugh lines, and there’s a parade of Famous Actors Playing Famous People—some with dignity (James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn as George Sr. and Barbara Bush, Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush), others as sub-SNL caricatures (Thandie Newton’s ludicrous Condoleezza Rice), still others somewhere between (Jeffrey Wright as a grumbling Colin Powell; Toby Jones a simpering Karl Rove; Richard Dreyfuss a patronizing, power-mad Dick Cheney). As the dimwitted chief executive, Brolin masters the art of talking with his mouth full of food.