Irresistable

IT’S not hard to upset Donald Trump, but he won’t break a sweat over this toothless satire from writer-director Jon Stewart.

With US politics dangerously unhinged, the former host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show takes aim at the price tag of local election campaigns.

Steve Carell plays Gary Zimmer, a Washington DC political strategist for the Democrats, who is still smarting over the 2016 presidential election.

He scents redemption in a viral video of retired Colonel

Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) who is seen delivering a passionate and powerful speech in support of migrant workers at a Wisconsin town hall.

A straight-talking military man who cares about social justice ticks all the right boxes, so he heads to his dying town to try to persuade him to run for mayor, and possibly a lot more. On his arrival, Stewart attempts some very clunky fish-out-of-water comedy as Gary discovers there is no wi-fi, just dial-up (really?). When the colonel agrees to run for mayor and their campaign makes the national news, his arch rival Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) rolls up to unleash the spending power of the Republican party. There are a couple of clever lines, but the cast is saddled with one-note characters and Stewart can’t craft a decent visual gag.

It all builds towards a final twist which, depending on your knowledge of the mechanics of US elections, will be either unconvincing or utterly bewildering.