Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

Director Michael Russell Gunn's Brink of War examines one of the briefest yet most captivating attempts at a kind of Cold War peace: a secret meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev aimed at slowing, and then altogether stopping, the development of intermediate-range nuclear weapons. Hollywood legends Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris play Reagan and Gorbachev, respectively.

That Shelf’s Alex Southey sat down with filmmaker Michael Russell Gunn and screen acting royalty Harris to chat about the ways Brink of War is even more relevant upon its release than when Gunn first cooked up the idea for a script, and whether or not prosthetics help or hurt an actor inhabiting a role mentally.

The Brink of War hits theatres on August 14.

SUBSCRIBE to our channel: youtube.com/thatshelf?sub_confirmation=1

Official Site: thatshelf.com
X/Twitter: http://x.com/thatshelf
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thatshelf.com
Instagram: instagram.com/thatshelf
Threads: threads.net/@thatshelf
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/ThatShelf
Facebook: facebook.com/thatshelf