Thank You for Smoking

Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for the tobacco lobby and a very good talker. He argues with a senator, a teenage son and a cancer-stricken former Marlboro Man, and never loses a debate, because he never has to be right, only to be unbeaten. It's a comedy about how persuasion works when the facts are against you.

Why it’s here: The film is a satire of spin, built on a charming villain. What's punk is that it punches up at lobbyists and the PR people who work for them. What's pedagogical is that Nick narrates his own rhetorical tricks, so a viewer can learn to name them. Pairs with Merchants of Doubt, which was suggested earlier this month, and Trust Me, I'm Lying in the catalog.

A British minister says on the radio that war is unforeseeable. In Washington and London, spin doctors and generals turn that sentence into a march to war. It is a comedy about how a casual remark, an unread report and a lot of swearing push two governments into invading a country that nobody in the room has seen.

Why it’s here: The film is about how a war gets made by people trying to protect their jobs. What's punk is that no one in power is spared, and the funniest scenes are the ones where a decision is made by the person who has read the least. What's pedagogical is how clearly it exposes the pipeline from soundbite to policy. Close relatives: The Death of Stalin (same director, already in the catalog) and Dr. Strangelove. Note: very profane.