STEVEN SPIELBERG’S PARANOID STYLE: Spielberg’s early movies depict the Carter administration gassing American citizens and covering up man’s first encounter with alien visitors, and FDR and his infamous “Top. Men.” similarly burying proof that God exists inside a warehouse that’s symbolic of the infinite Kafka-esque bureaucratic maze that was the New Deal. In sharp contrast, as Sonny Bunch writes in the Washington Post, in Bridge of Spies, Spielberg’s latest film, “Rather than the government being treated with suspicion by Spielberg, it’s the common folk who let the viewers down.”

And “the common folk” are happy to return the bad feelings the best way they know how: Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ latest film “grossed only $15.3 million its opening weekend,” John Nolte writes at Big Hollywood, despite “reviews weren’t just good, they were glowing” (including Nolte’s own take).

Perhaps with the growing threat of nuclear war in the Middle East, Bridge of Spies’ Cold War analogy hits a bit too close to home for viewers looking for escapism from the debacle created by Spielberg and Hanks-supported President Obama.