“Wag the Dog” is unbelievable in the way that it is believable. Cowritten by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet and directed by Barry Levinson, “Wag the Dog” is a brilliant political satire that pokes wicked fun at our twisted government and the lies it feeds the public each day through the media.Robert DeNiro stars as a political spin doctor Conrad Brean who is called to the White House when the president is hit with an allegation of sexual assault of a young Firefly girl in the Oval Office. Brean must divert the negative media attention because the president is up for re-election in 11 days. To do this, Brean has the president declare an imaginary war with the country of Albania because “no one knows anything about Albania.” Along with White House aide Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), Brean flies to Hollywood to meet with movie producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to help them come up with ideas on how to produce the war. Motss may be Hoffman’s best role since “Rain Man.” He is convincing as the egotistical, big-haired movie producer as he utters his first line from a tanning bed, “Get me a veggie shake and remind me to turn over in ten minutes to get the other side.” Brean promises Motss an ambassadorship as compensation for his secrecy and the Hollywood magic he works for the president. Motss begins to work on his new-found political involvement by enlisting the help of his fellow entertainment specialists. Musician Johnny Green (Willie Nelson) writes the war’s patriotic anthem, while Fad King (Denis Leary) markets the war, because, after all, “the president is a product.” Together, the group plots out the war and every move the president makes, creating history the public eagerly eats. When Motss claims that the war is only the first act, he is right. The rest of the film is an unfolding of events, including the introduction of the war’s hero, “Old Shoe,” played by a scary Woody Harrelson, to help the president win votes. The film is also unpredictable, with an unexpected plot twist at the end. Although the movie is fast-paced, Levinson did an amazing job making “Wag the Dog” easy to follow. As for the cast, DeNiro is flawless as Brean and Heche provides the perfect support. It is too bad that the public only knows Heche as Ellen’s girlfriend and not as the great actress she is. Leary is the same babbling idiot that he was on HBO, but he has great dialogue with which to ramble. Nelson is hilarious as Green, especially after Motss requests that he work overtime and he tells him, “I was just on my way to get drunk.”Anyone who has ever doubted anything the government has done, be it covering up the assassination of JFK to whether or not aliens really exist, will love this movie. Look for “Wag the Dog” to conquer come Oscar time.