Recount

Recount (2008) is HBO's political drama about the 36-day standoff that decided the 2000 US presidential election — watch it online on iFILM. Director Jay Roach reconstructed the Florida ballot crisis through two rival war rooms: Kevin Spacey as the Democratic operative pushing for a manual recount, Tom Wilkinson as the Republican strategist working just as hard to shut it down.

The film turns the mechanics of electoral law — canvassing boards, butterfly ballots, the definition of a dimpled chad — into genuine procedural suspense. Laura Dern and Denis Leary round out a cast that plays it straight rather than satirical; there's no pantomime villain, just two teams convinced they're saving democracy. Written from contemporaneous reporting, it's the closest thing to a fly-on-the-wall account of one of the strangest weeks in American political history. Stream Recount (2008) online on iFILM.