Can She Take Away America’s Guns? Miss Sloane Gives It a Try

In a memorable scene from Miss Sloane, a high-stakes political drama about a Capitol Hill power broker taking on the gun lobby, the title character—played by an ice-cold Jessica Chastain—describes the job of a lobbyist to a Senate ethics committee that suspects it has backed her into a corner. It’s wrong. “Lobbying is about foresight,” she says. “It’s about making sure you surprise them—and they don’t surprise you.”

As zingers go, it’s OK. But it’s also a line the filmmakers might wish they could take back. When French indie distributor EuropaCorp sought a late November release for Miss Sloane, it anticipated a moment when post-election policy wonkery and Academy Awards buzz might coalesce into a single, ripped-from-the-headlines conversation. The film is, after all, about a strong, ambitious woman—a Washington heavyweight—navigating a male-dominated industry while fending off sexism to get meaningful work done. The timing looked perfect.