Game Change

Game Change (2012) is an HBO political drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jay Roach and based on the bestselling account of the 2008 Republican presidential campaign. Ed Harris plays John McCain, Woody Harrelson plays chief strategist Steve Schmidt, and Julianne Moore plays Sarah Palin in a performance that took home both a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

Late summer 2008: McCain is trailing in every poll and his team is hunting for a game-changer. Schmidt convinces him to pick Alaska's little-known governor as his running mate — fresh face, conservative credentials, guaranteed media attention. What the vetting process failed to surface was a near-total unfamiliarity with basic foreign policy. The film follows the weeks that follow: intensive briefings, mounting panic behind closed doors, and a campaign that could no longer control what it had put in front of cameras.

Roach keeps the film grounded in the mechanics of modern politics rather than in satire — the horror is institutional, not personal. The screenplay, written by Danny Strong, is careful not to flatten Palin into a punchline, which is precisely what makes Schmidt's dawning dread so uncomfortable to watch. Stream Game Change (2012) online on iFILM.