Founded in 2004, Participant Media, a production company known for its sociopolitical daring, burned an unusually bright arc across a filmscape that, more typically, reserved its fireworks for superheroes. When news broke in April that Participant would be closing up shop, a cry went out among all who value films of substance. They weren’t all hits and they weren’t all made by gifted filmmakers.
But many of its movies remain extraordinary records of their moment. Here are our 12 favorites as chosen by The Times’ movie staff reporters and editors. The last film by powerhouse director Mike Nichols, 2007’s “Charlie Wilson’s War” managed to be both a freewheeling behind-the-scenes comedy amid the halls of governmental power and also a sober consideration of the unintended consequences of American interventions across the globe.
Tom Hanks stars as an affable, secure-in-his-seat Texas congressman who is uniquely able to engage in bipartisan wheeling and dealing. He finds himself unexpectedly situated to increase funding for a covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Julia Roberts brings zest to her role as a conservative activist and socialite, but it is Philip Seymour Hoffman as a brash, acerbic veteran CIA officer who more or less walks off with the movie.
From a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, the film’s politics can be a bit fuzzy, but it is difficult to imagine a movie like this coming from any major studio today. (Streaming on Max) — Mark Olsen Nearly.
