Thank You for Smoking (2006)

Aaron Eckhart of Erin Brockovich fame, is Nick Naylor, the spin doctor behind Big Tobacco's Public Relations in this movie about the corruption of the industry, and the government's unashamed attempts at stopping the progress of the tobacco industry.

The movie is pretty standard technically, its directing, editing, cinematography, etc....it's all pretty straightforward. However, the controversial topic, small budget, and William H. Macy's presence destined this movie for the 'arthouse crowd' only to end up gaining popularity and earning a wide release this past month. Yay for word of mouth!

....that William H. Macy thing was a joke, by the way.

I must say, it's gotta be the funniest independent movie I've seen that I didn't expect to be funny. Also, there was a lot of interesting philosophical elements about what it really means to 'win' an argument. Nick Naylor's point of view is that there is a huge difference between Arguing and Negotiating, and he does his best to avoid the latter. In doing so, throughout the movie, he consistently wins arguments but is later faced with the obvious moral issues of defending big tobacco with his abilities to persuade.

It's a great movie with a lot of quirks that I think anyone would enjoy.