this is american history. >> john ridley, dust off the tuxedo.is just a fantastic piece of work. i am >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. and i'm dressed this halloween as steve kornacki. we've got lots of politics tonight, starting at the white house, where you might have noticed, it's been something of a rough couple of weeks for the president. with the rocky rollout of his signature health reform law dominating the news, the political toll is real and it is getting worse. and nowhere is the damage more apparent than in the latest polling from nbc news, where president obama's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 42%. that is a five-point drop from

this is american history. >> john ridley, dust off the tuxedo. ards season. this is just a fantastic piece of work. i am very, very happy to have you here tonight. thank you, john. >> thank you very much for having me. i appreciate it. >> up next, "hardball with chris matthews." >>> all in the family. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. where the wild things are. if you're wondering where the wild things are, the real right wing of the country finds its home these days, look no further than the home of rafael edward cruz. what do we make of cruz sr.'s charge that the president should go back to kenya? should we kiss it off as another crazy texas birther comment of which there are so many?

and the screenwriter behind the film "12 years a slave," john ridley >> woodruff: the white house said today 20% of americans will still not be able to buy health insurance on the federal exchange website by the end of the month. instead, they'll need to sign up by phone or in person, in many cases because of the complexity of their situation. but in advance of a congressional hearing, a senior obama administration official was quoted as saying healthcare.gov is improving, and said they are working on making it easier for people to understand whether they are eligible for subsidies. that's been a problem for many up to now. it brings us to our series on reactions to the affordable care act. tonight, we hear from a couple in colorado who are finally able to insure their family with the help of a subsidy, through a tax credit. >> my name is joaquin montez. >> and my name is rosalee montez. >> we live in nevada, colorado and we have three kids. >> our oldest is a daughter, and she's in college. and we have a middle, he is a son and he's 13th and es 1/8 grader. our little one is four years

i want to live. >> joining me now screenwriter and executive producer of "12 years a slave" john ridleyadaptation working from that material, working from the language of that era in the book. how did you approach it? >> really in some ways, lawrence, i looked at it as kind of a restoration project. the source material -- i encourage everyone to read it -- is one of the most powerful documents that i've ever read and i tried to really approach it with an invisible hand but to be as reductive as opposed to additive. as a person of color in 2013, i didn't want too much of me in the story. reading and feeling the power of solomon's words. i wanted it to be about him. it is his story. >> let's look at another scene. let's watch this. >> take comfort. in his own time, you could learn to manage them all. the curse are a poor example of white plantation class. this is nice. >> a couple of things about that one. it's nice because she has basically become a mistress who is given a much better way of life. >> it's a very interesting scene. one of the things for me in telling this story, if it's g

[man] we chat with john ridley, screenwriter for... "12 years a slave." the fact that it really fell out of the consciousness... for almost 150 years is really kind of shocking. [man] we review "nebraska"... from director alexander payne. alexander payne has made six movies, but this is... the first time he doesn't have a screenwriting credit. [man] and, aaron and kevin battle... over which film is best: "let me in" versus "let the right one in." why can't people just appreciate international filmmaking? they can, and i love international filmmaking. yeah, okay, so then why did this need to be made? [man] all right here... on "just seen it." ♪ ♪♪ has a history of selfishness and greed. -i owe you. -yes, you do. [man] when he descends into the world of drug trafficking, he finds himself in over his head. if you're not in, you need to tell me. why? because you don't know someone 'til you know what they want. [man] not knowing who to trust may cost him everything. -how bad is it? -i'd say pretty bad. [man] in "the counselor." hi, i'm zorianna. -i'm salim. -a

. >> john ridley, dust off the tuxedo. you're going to be very busy during awards season. this is just a fantastic piece of work. i am very, very happy to have you here tonight. thank you, john. >> thank you very much for having me. i appreciate it. >> up next, "hardball with chris matthews." >>> all in the family. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. where the wild things are. if you're wondering where the wild things are, the real right wing of the country finds its home these days, look no further than the home of rafael edward cruz. what do we make of cruz sr.'s charge that the president should go back to kenya? should we kiss it off as another crazy texas birther comment of which there are so many? should we ignore the words that the president of this country is a marxist, that he's a second fidel castro? is the father the end of this thinking? does it all stop with him? or is the surrogate closer to the senator -- the father closer to the san than either will let us know? does it matter? or should

. >> john ridley, dust off the tuxedo. you're going to be very busy during awards season. this is just a fantastic piece of work. i am >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. and i'm dressed this halloween as steve kornacki. we've got lots of politics tonight, starting at the white house, where you might have noticed, it's been something of a rough couple of weeks for the president. with the rocky rollout of his signature health reform law dominating the news, the political toll is real and it is getting worse. and nowhere is the damage more apparent than in the latest polling from nbc news, where president obama's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 42%. that is a five-point drop from just earlier this month. these numbers, as bad as they are, don't necessarily exist in a vacuum. there's a lot more complexity to the current political environment, which in many ways is the story of american politics in the tea party era. >> let's talk about the president. >> between syria, between the shutdown, between obama care, how are his approval numbers stacking