The Assassination of Richard Nixon

Inspired by true events, The Assassination of Richard Nixon is the story of Sam Bique, a man against the system who plotted against President Richard Nixon back in 1974.

Sean Penn plays Sam Bique, a failure man living a pathetic life, lying to himself about a job in sales which he can't perform, because he doesn't like lie, so his boss (played by Jack Thompson) while teaching him how to do it, also treats him like shit and with no respect.
Sam also has a family, but he and his wife Marie (Naomi Watts) have been separated for a year now and she's starting to move on with her life, which Sam knows but still tries to get back with her.
The last subplot comes from his relation with his friend (his only one it seems) Bonny (Don Cheadle). They're trying to open a business together, but since Bonny is black, Sam is the one taking care of everything, particularly asking for a bank loan, which we know from the start its going to fail.
And that's the theme of Sam Bique, failure, even the climatic story, which concerns President Richard Nixon.

While everything in his life was falling apart, Sam was watching President Nixon on TV, telling the people about the American Dream, and how everything was great, and how everything was going to be even better.
Nixon was on a lot (a lot!) on TV, and Sam watched him with a priceless face of disbelief and an ever growing hate for the American way of life and the system.

That's when he starts to rebel, first in a very funny sequence in which he tries to convince the Black Panthers to convert to the Zebras, which would be like the Black Panthers but also for white people who were against the system.
When that of course fails, Sam makes a plan to crash a plane into the White House. And it's no spoiler to say that it never happens, as Sam once again fails in a very intense climatic scene.

Sean Penn is terrific, following his Oscar winning Mystic River with another devastating performance likely to be overlooked by the Academy because of the great competition between leading actors this year, but mostly because of the studio behind the movie, ThinkFilm, a very small independent company (that's been getting attention this year with the releases of Being Julia, Primer, and the documentary Born into Brothels) that hasn't had the power to create strong enough buzz to get Sean Penn into the Awards season.
Despite some slow pacing at parts, the movie is strong, and Penn's performance is stronger, reason enough to give this movie a try.