Network (1976)

“Don’t fuck with my distribution costs!”

Much, much funnier than expected. Not only a biting satire (or ‘reportage’ as Lumet himself preferred, since all but one of the situations depicted had already occurred by the time of filming, according to him), but also an absurdist comedy, made more surreal by the fantastically cascading situations that the characters merely flow with, instead of trying to stop – in that way it is very Strangelove-esque (although a little less reserved in overt satire). Lumet proves again he is an actors’ director, and not a single performance disappoints, with personal preference to Ned Beatty’s brief, satanic cameo as the network’s potential new CEO.

Thanks to the quality of performances, the fact that the…