Irresistible (2020)

[Greg]

It was Political Fantasy Day at the Lair. I watched American President twice, mostly to hear Michael Douglass's speech at the end.

But the Netflix gods still have a few movies to watch in their DVD drawer and this movie by Jon Stewart was one of them. I could have watched it when it premiered on VOD but balked at the price.

A political campaign manager goes to the Heartland to run a small town's mayoral race to show that big time Democrat Washington Politics can show they care about the little guys. Steve Carrell stars as the high powered campaign manager. Chris Cooper is the Marine Colonel Carrell gets to run as a democrat for Mayor. There's a lot of fish out of water stuff. There's a lot of big town-little town comparisons.

The film takes a while to get going. Rather than pay attention to what was going on I was guessing which shots were scripted and which were ones Carrell was just riffing. But it does pick and becomes very engaging as a rival political operator played by Rose Byrne comes to town to defeat Carrelll's candidate. The movie is full of irony and sarcasm and pointed skewering of politics that Jon Stewart is so good at it.

It's really good. I laughed a lot. No swords fights. No fights at all really, except verbal. But if you are looking for some fake politics to take your mind off real politics this is your jam.

[Drunk Monk]

Steve Carell is a Democratic campaign consultant who gets involved with a mayoral race in a tiny town of Wisconson. Rose Byrne is his Republican rival. They descend on the little town and shake everything up because it's a swing state. Written and directed by Jon Stewart, it's witty and perceptive, funny with biting commentary. I'm sick of politics right now, but this was a welcome relief.

I guessed the mcguffin.

There's a ton of extra scenes of the DVD. Like almost half an hour of deleted scenes, some are good. Lots of bloopers too but mostly Carell losing it.  

No sword fights. DOOM recommended.

[Greg]

It's too bad you didn't add this to the review I already did.

[Drunk Monk]

Nice merge. I did search for this and it didn't pop. I must've misspelled it in my search or something. 

I was also amused that it had three alternate endings with the credit roll starting with each one, and then a political analysis scene during the final credit roll that was really scary.

It did make me rethink Super Pacs. Good they really be used for good like the film postulates? No, I doubt it.

[Greg]

Money is the root of all evil, especially when it is sanctioned by the government.

The film was a nice break from all the Super-Hero and effects laden film that seems to be our current diet.

[Drunk Monk]

Agreed.

But man, if the two campaign managers got in a sword fight, that would've been great. I loved the way their rivalry played out.

[Greg]

The film had a lot of good threads. I especially liked the bit with the hamburger and Budweiser at the bar. It was so insightful. Set up the whole film.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, I'm a sucker for Stewart's style of humor. This hit all the right notes, although it was a slow build, but a very nice payout. 

I liked the pastry bit. There was a point where I laughed out loud (for realz) but I can't remember why now. 

The final credit talking head explaning Super Pacs was really disturbing. I kinda knew about that already but put so succinctly at the end of this film was a good punch to the gut.

[thatguy]

Politics and swordfights... I remember when I saw this cover (back in the good old days), I could only think of "The Highlander"



--tg