First of all, anyone who hasn't read the book needs to. It's the critical text for understanding what happened in the 90s. The movie is no substitute - there are too many threads, too many important details, to be covered completely.
The narrative of the movie is created primarily through interviews, with some narration by Morgan Freeman to tie things together. There are some media clips, as well as some stock footage for illustrative purposes.
Overall, I think it does quite a good job at telling the basic story of what happened, from the late 80s through impeachment. I would have preferred it if the movie included some more details -- too often things are asserted rather than demonstrated, and while that's fine for someone like me who basically knows about it for the uninformed it might be less than convincing. For example, in the movie it was asserted something along the lines of "the OIC leaks to the press one day would be contradicted by testimony the next." A specific example or two of that, neatly packaged, would have driven home the point. Also, some of the specific cases of complete journalistic fraud on TV could have been highlighted.
It did a pretty good job of showing what a bunch of misogynistic sex-obsessed corrupt perverts Starr's gang was. It kept coming back to sex, every time, even before Monica arrived on the scene.
Some of the interviews were quite revealing, even if you've read the book - former Clinton staffers, Susan McDougal, Claudia Riley.
One of its inadvertent successes was painting a portrait of the tragic fall of Jim McDougal. Late in life, for a variety of reasons, McDougal had become a tragic buffoon, so it was interesting seeing a fuller portrait of his life.
Is the movie brilliant? No. But, it's definitely worth dragging your friends and family to.
Obligatory "celebrity" sighting list: Peter Boyle, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert George, Tom Tomorrow, Joe Conason, Gene Lyons, Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Toobin, David Brock, Steven Brill, John Stossel, Al Franken, Susan McDougal, Salman Rushdie (I think), Lloyd Grove...
...Jim C. also has a review.
