Tie-in Tuesday

ObamaCare, Frost-Nixon, The Lives of Others, The Hunger Games

What do ObamaCare, the Frost-Nixon interviews, The Lives of Others and The Hunger Games have in common? Examining differences and similarities, they are distinct. A law governing America’s complicated health care system—a syndicated series of broadcast interviews between a disgraced American president and a self-aggrandizing British journalist—a taut foreign film about one who goes against the surveillance state—a movie adaptation of the first novel in a young adult franchise about a girl who defies dictatorship. Two of these are movies—one’s a major motion picture and the other’s a small, independent film—and all contain key differences. Could these things be similar? If so, how? Why? What’s the common thread or tie-in?

Both of the movies are dystopian, though one’s based on a state, East Germany, which existed in reality and the other is set in a fictional regime. What of the Affordable Care Act law, known as ObamaCare, and Nixon’s televised interviews? They’re both predicated on mod…