This might sound unbelievable; once there was a time when the President of the United States took part in a criminal operation and was held accountable. President Richard Nixon and his re-election team decided to get an advantage by organizing burglars to break into the Democratic National Committe headquarters at the Watergate Complex. They took photos of valuable documents and planted listening bugs in the office phones. They were successful the first time. When they returned for more a few weeks later, the perpetrators were caught. During Congress’s investigation into what happened, it was discovered that President Richard Nixon had a taping system in the White House that recorded everything. The Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. The damage was so bad that even Republicans let him know they weren’t going to support him during the impeachment process. Instead of fighting, Nixon resigned in disgrace. While the tapes were damning enough, there was a noticeable gap of 18 minutes and 30 seconds on one tape. Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods claims she erased the tape accidentally, but investigations proved this was no accident. What was on that tape? 18 1/2 is a historical comedy about what happens when a transcriber discovers a tape with those 18 1/2 minutes and wants them made public.
Connie (The Fall of the House of Usher‘s Willa Fitzgerald) has her headphones on as she types out the transcript of another “boring” tape at work in the Old Executive Building. She realizes that this is the lost tape. She pockets the tape and contacts Paul (First Cow‘s John Magaro), a reporter for the New York Times. They meet at a coastal town in Maryland so he can hear the tape. She has to get it back to her office by Monday morning so her boss (Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman) won’t notice it’s missing. Paul and Connie check into a motel run by Jack (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Richard Kind) to listen to the tape. Being the early ’70s, the couple lie that they’re on their honeymoon to get the room. Things get complicated when they need to locate a bulky reel to reel tape deck. They encounter an ex-Vietnam Vet (Sullivan Jones) who appears to be starting his own love cult on the beach. They locate a couple with a recorder in a nearby cabin. Lena (Orange Is The New Black‘s Catherine Curtin) and Samuel (Daredevil‘s Vondie Curtis-Hall) are willing to share their recorder, but they seem even more interested sharing each other. They give off a swinger vibe as they flirt with the newlyweds. In the midst of the strangeness is an overwhelming sense of paranoia from Paul and Connie. They fear that anything unusual is spying on them. Are there Feds or Nixon stooges on their trail? Will Paul be able to break the story of what’s on the 18 1/2 minutes?
18 1/2 is a romp through history. This is a completely fictional movie so don’t use this in an argument about what happened during the Watergate Scandal. By giving us Connie at the core, we’re not tied into real characters being fictionalized. The missing White House audio tape has an all-star cast of Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) as Nixon, Jon Cryer (Pretty In Pink) as H.R. Halderman and Ted Raimi (Xena: Princess Warrior) as Alexander Haig. They deliver the audio conspiracy. Willa Fitzgerald and John Magaro get their characters caught up in the fears. They also have fun little comic moments The bonus features discuss how they shot the film with minimal locations at the motel on the beach, but the action feels expansive. There’s plenty of places and faces to keep the main characters feel like they’re being spied upon. And the paranoia pays off. 18 1/2 doesn’t erase the tension.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. Things are crisp and you’ll get the little touches of mid-70s America including Connie’s headphones. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The levels will let you hear the Nixon tape cleanly enough to convict. There’s also an audio of the audience watching the film at the Gobal Premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival. You’ll hear the laughter at the right spots. The subtitles are in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
Commentary Track has director Dan Mirvish and screenwriter Daniel Moya get into how they made the movie feel a bit more expansive with a limited amount of places to shoot.
COVID 18 1/2: The Making of a Film In A Global Pandemic (113:25) reveals how the film came together. There’s cameo from Jules Feiffer. The legendary cartoonist had inspired them to think about doing a Nixon film. They had access to the motel and wanted to make a small film. They deal with how the movie was shutdown after 11 days because of COVID restrictions being instituted. They reunited months later to finish the last four days of production. The bonus feature is subtitled.
Alt Scene: “Deadly Revolution” (1:58) is a song from the film with a different angle.
Lloyd Kaufman at the Tall Grass Film Festival in Wichita (2:02) has the head of Troma films outside the movie theater hyping the film.
Standalone Audio of The Full Nixon Tape (12:00) has all the audio recorded for the movie played at once. You’ll get how a reel to reel tape recorder worked. You’ll get to hear more of Bruce Campbell as Nixon.
Official MPA-Approved Trailer (1:31) show all the festivals that ran the film.
Theatrical Promo (1:25) has the director outside the Broadway AMC promoting the film with a sandwich board. His film opened up against Top Gun Maverick. “Help America go back to the movies,” he declares.
International Trailer (1:43) is full of spoilers so you might want to hold off looking at this until after you see the 18 1/2. There’s plenty of great review blurbs from foreign publications on the screen.
MVDVisual presents 18 1/2. Directed by Dan Mirvish. Screenplay by Daniel Moya. Starring Willa Fitzgerald, John Magaro, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Catherine Curtin, Richard Kind, Sullivan Jones, Alanna Saunders, Claire Saunders, Ted Raimi, Jon Cryer, Bruce Campbell & Lloyd Kaufman. Running Time: 89 minutes. Rating: Rated PG-13. Release Date: April 9, 2023.
