Aaron Reviews: Dear Dictator

Have you ever woken up and thought, “what’s Jason Biggs been up to?” Well check out Dear Dictator and you’ll soon find out as this coming of age comedy brings a lot of old and a lot of new when it comes to talent with the casting of this film.

The main players in Dear Dictator are Michael Caine, the titular dictator, Katie Holmes who plays a single mom raising her daughter played by Odeya Rush. The main story of the film deals with Tatiana (Rush) completing a school project for her teacher, played by Jason Biggs in where she writes a letter to someone she admires and sees as a role model. She chooses notorious dictator Anton Vincent (Caine) much to the shagrin of her teacher and miraculously the letter actually makes it to the dictator and he reads it. Not long after the letter is read, the citizens of his tropical nation uprise and overthrow the dictator causing him to flee the country.

This is where things get hilarious as the place Anton Vincent flees to is Tatiana’s and her mother’s garage. After some shenanigans with the dictator and that movie magic that keeps the story going, the dictator takes on a sort of grandfather relationship with the mother daughter duo and helps Tatiana with her confidence as she’s a social outcast at school.

During Tatiana’s growth during the film the real intent of he dictator shows more as he realizes he can’t retake his former country. At this point he decides to use Tatiana as his new protégé and teaches her to become the dictator of her school.

For the most part, I enjoyed this movie. It was funny when it needed to be. It was serious when warranted and it was a genuinely good time watching this movie and watching actors I like (Big ups to Jason Biggs!!!) do something out of their normal bubble. Lessons were learned by all parties and each character arc was satisfied with little to no loose ends. Out of a 10 point rating, Dead Dictator, to me, gets a 6.75. Check it out for yourself as it’s in theaters now!!!!