A political comedy wildly out of step with the times
Jon Stewart seems to have missed his moment.
Stewart is one of the more potent political satirists and commentators in recent times, an unabashed liberal whose influential Comedy Channel series “The Daily Show” gained traction with the 2000 presidential election and introduced the world to Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver.
But Stewart resigned from the show in 2015, before the 2016 campaign, and missed the rise of Donald Trump (“The Daily Show” is now in the capable hands of Trevor Noah). Now with many calling Trump’s reelection bid the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes, Stewart has decided to direct a political movie — and I can’t think of a more irrelevant one to make in these times than “Irresistible,” perhaps the most lamebrain, hamfisted and insulting movie of the year.
Carell stars as Gary Zimmer, a top Democratic strategist who was a key part of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Disillusioned and looking for a way to connect to the “real” America, Gary sees a viral video of a rural farmer, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), who stands up to a small Wisconsin town’s Republican mayor (Brent Sexton) at a meeting
and decides he’s his man.
So instead of using his vast knowledge and skills from years in the campaign trenches to help defeat President Trump, Gary bizarrely decides to spend the 2020 election season in rural Wisconsin helping farmer Jack unseat the Republican mayor of Deerlaken, which must have a population of about 1,000. In other words, he has chosen to sit on the sidelines.
Incredibly, Gary’s nemesis, Republican operative Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), who helped get Trump elected (think a younger version of Kellyanne Conway), decides she’ll sit out the national election to manage the campaign of Mayor Braun — apparently for no other reason than that she loves to beat Gary (in the political sense).
So suddenly this smalltown Midwestern mayor’s race is being run by two arrogant, foulmouthed East Coast elites, who form super PACs for their candidates and draw in millions of dollars from the outside. CNN and other cable networks cover the race. Each campaign manager brings in a team from Washington, with Topher Grace and Natasha Lyonne joining Gary’s.
Sure, it’s a comedy (or intended to be one), but even comedies have to operate from some basis of logic. With all that’s going on in 2020, what possible strategic value does it have for the Democratic or Republican parties to pour millions into a smalltown mayoral contest, when one can just knock on doors?
Even worse, Deerlaken, Wis., is supposed to be the “real” America, but Stewart has little interest in depicting an honest version of Midwesterners, or their problems. No actual issues that affect the town are discussed. (I have no idea what the economy of the town is, if people are struggling or what.)
The candidates are also never shown campaigning, or even debating (Cooper, an Oscar winner, is wasted) and the townspeople are shown to be a bunch of rubes, straight out of the Hollywood playbook of Preston Sturges comedies, “Doc Hollywood” and “Groundhog Day.” (Two hefty guys sidle up to Gary at a bar. “Hi, I’m big Mike,” says one, and points to the other, even bigger one. “And that’s Little Mike.” Hardy harhar.)
And did I mention that there’s no WiFi in town, and the campaign has to, at one point, get dialup? You know, because it’s a small hick town.
Of course, the East Coasters aren’t treated too kindly, either. Stewart takes an overthetop, sitcomlevel, insultladen approach to the dynamic between Gary and Faith. It’s everything but funny. Carell is way better in Netflix’s “Space Force,” an average series that seems like comic genius compared with “Irresistible.”
So what is Stewart’s point? Obviously — as in hammeroverhead obviously — he is bemoaning how big money and skewed media coverage are killing political discourse, and how East Coast elites are failing to connect with the concerns of real American voters.
All worthy points to make, sure. But if that’s your view, how about connecting with real America yourself ? One could view the New Yorker Stewart as an East Coast elitist who struggles to connect.
And speaking of the real America, that includes Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans and other minorities in this most diverse country, yet Stewart has chosen, in these times, to make the whitest movie imaginable.
Never mind that’s it’s not funny. In this important election year, what would an undecided voter, a concerned American or even a political junkie get out of “Irresistible”?
Hard to believe that Stewart has chosen to sit on the sidelines in 2020. His film should be retitled “Irrelevant.”
Jon Stewart has chosen, in these times, to make the whitest movie imaginable.