Partly in honor of the passing of James Garner, but also because this 1993 HBO movie fully deserves a Seal of Approval, here it is: a boldly conceptualized, brilliantly realized black comedy about a subject as complex as it would appear to be humorless: the true-life behind-the-scenes story of a leveraged buyout corporate takeover of a major tobacco company. Larry Gelbart wrote the teleplay, based on the nonfiction book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, that achieved this triumph, and Garner, starring as plain-spoken tobacco executive F. Ross Johnson, absolutely nails it. One of the best, and smartest, and funniest, telemovies ever made, by HBO or anyone else. Co-stars include Jonathan Pryce, Peter Riegert and Joanna Cassidy. Glenn Jordan directs. –David Bianculli