HBO's Brexit is like a good episode of The West Wing, despite its well-intentioned pandering

The A.V. Club

"Bearing a terrific cast and clever screenplay that occasionally pops with a fizzy, (Aaron) Sorkin-lite flair, the movie ... goes all-in on some blunt-force symbolism and cheesy imagery that renders things overly simplistic, sapping subtlety and delivering the tale of England’s ill-considered destabilization of its global position with the moralizing of an after-school special," says Alex McLevy. "(In other words, the worst of Sorkin’s political storytelling instincts are adopted by the project, right alongside his better stylistic tics.) Then again, it could be argued that using dumbed-down tactics to convey the dumbing-down of political discourse is precisely the necessary way of fighting fire with fire. It certainly keeps things zipping along: Brexit is never boring, the film racing from one moment of the campaign to the next with a feisty, broadly appealing tone that recalls Jay Roach’s work on HBO’s American-set films about momentous votes, Recall and Game Change."

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• Benedict Cumberbatch’s tight-wired performance is the best thing in this brisk but mechanical retread of recent events
• For Americans, even if that story isn't our own, it's absolutely relatable and that makes it interesting
• It's remarkable how Cumberbatch can make even his most peculiar and interior characters electric
• Smartly, Brexit doesn’t get too wonky over its just-enough 97 minutes
• Brexit is a lethal force, a blistering take on the referendum
• Cumberbatch visited the home of Dominic Cummings, whom he portrays, and had dinner with his wife