01
Tanner '88
Why this pick
Altman’s faux-documentary campaign trail has the same candid-camera texture, improvised political chaos, and sharp eye for how candidates become media performances.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1992 1h 42m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Bob Roberts
ComedyDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Bob Roberts, try these.
01
02
The Candidate
Why this pick
A wry, character-led campaign satire that tracks idealism being reshaped by consultants, image-making, and the relentless logic of electoral spectacle.
03
Wag the Dog
Why this pick
Its coolly absurd political-media satire shares Bob Roberts’ interest in manufactured narratives, cynical operatives, and public opinion treated as a production.
04
Primary Colors
Why this pick
A more dramatic but still mordantly funny view of a presidential campaign, driven by compromised staffers and the gap between political charisma and private conduct.
05
Election
Why this pick
This smaller-scale satire turns a school election into a precise, darkly comic study of ambition, image control, resentment, and competitive self-deception.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
''Bob Roberts'' takes place in Pennsylvania, USA in 1990. It depicts a fictitious senatorial race between a Conservatism Republican Party (United States) country singer, Bob Roberts, and the incumbent Democratic Party (United States), Brickley Paiste. The film is shot through the perspective of Terry Manchester, a British documentary filmmaker who is following the Roberts campaign. Through his lens we see Roberts travel across the state, performing songs about drug users, lazy people and the triumph of traditional family values over the rebelliousness of the 1960s. As the campaign continues, Paiste remains in the lead until a scandal arises involving him and a young woman who was seen emerging from a car with him. Paiste claims that she was a friend of his granddaughter whom he was driving home, but he cannot shake the accusations.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Alan Rickman
Lukas Hart III
Susan Sarandon
Tawna Titan
Gore Vidal
Senator Brickley Paiste
Rebecca Jenkins
Delores Perrigrew
Kelly Willis
Clarissa Flan
Fred Ward
Chip Daley
Bob Balaban
Michael Janes
Giancarlo Esposito
Bugs Raplin