18 ½ Digital Review

4 star quirky but nifty political thriller.

18½ is a 2022 American comedy/thriller written by Daniel Moya (Scroll Back, Rental) and Dan Mirvish (Between Us, Open House) who also directs.

This entertaining Watergate caper is available on Digital Platforms in the UK from 11th July 2022 courtesy of 101 Films.

“It’s a tape in a box in a bag in a purse. That is it.”

The year is 1974. White House transcriber Connie (Willa Fitzgerald – The Goldfinch, Beach House) is enduring yet another day in her dead end job, listening to what she refers to as the only boring tapes in Washington. The eyes of America are on President Nixon and his secretary Rose Mary Woods, who claims to have accidently recorded over 18½ minutes of a tape from the oval office.

Imagine Connie’s surprise when she finds that Nixon listened to that tape in another office which had automatic recording and caught the whole thing, including his commentary on why the tape needed to be erased. Featuring the unmistakable voices of Nixon (Bruce Campbell – Black Friday, The Evil Dead), H.L. Haldeman (Jon Cryer – Pretty in Pink, Hot Shots!) and Alexander Haig (Ted Raimi – Skinner, The Grudge), she immediately realises the scandal this could cause. Not sure what to do with this information, she turns to Watergate journalist for The Times, Paul (John Magaro – Lansky, The Umberella Academy).

He is interested of course, but paranoia is rife in these strange times and she refuses to give him the tape. Instead they eventually agree to go to a motel and use his tape player to listen to it. This is where things begin to go sideways, with very amusing results.

“What’s this? No…this is a flower. You told me to wear it. I’m a reporter, not a spy.”

18½ is a clever little film which is quite hard to put into a category. It has all the elements of a political thriller and it’s an interesting idea that we could finally find out what was contained in those missing minutes. It’s also a romantic comedy, with a fairly large slice of farce thrown in for good measure.

It never takes itself too seriously and there are some great acting performances. Richard Kind – Big Mouth, Bombshell) is excellent as the over communicating Motel owner, as well as Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things) and Vondie Curtis Hall (Broken Arrow) as amorous Motel guests Lena and Samuel and Sullivan Jones (False Positive) as Wonder Bread hating hippie Barry.

Authentically of the era, irreverent and unexpected, this film is most certainly worth a watch.

“She was drinking absinthe, fending off advances from ravenous eighteen year old boys like a champ. I suppose after four years of resisting Nazis a couple of Iowan farm boys weren’t much of a challenge.”

18½ is available now on Digital  Platforms.