In ‘Irresistible,’ Stewart aims at a familiar enemy

At one point in “Irresistible,” Jon Stewart’s new political satire, a cable news anchor tosses a question to an absurdly overstuffed panel of 12 analysts, each in their own little “Brady Bunch” square. Immediately they start shouting at once, drowning each other out.

It’s just a quick, amusing bit, but for diehard Stewart fans it may evoke a memorable moment: his 2004 appearance on CNN’s “Crossfire,” where he accused the debate show’s hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala of being “partisan hacks” who were hurting America by imposing an artificial redblue divide on every issue.

Here, he takes aim not so much at the media — well, not ONLY the media — but the whole institutional structure via which we elect our leaders, and the corrosive role money plays in it.

So what else is new, you may ask? And what about, you know, everything else that’s happened the last few years? Stewart’s enduring influence is a double-edged sword here: Too many folks have been waiting to find out what he makes of what’s going on today, and they’ll likely be disappointed not to find out — at least not enough in this movie, which feels like it takes place well before the election of Donald Trump, even though it starts the next morning.

Yet “Irresistible” has its smart laughs and real pleasures. For one thing, the lead actors are perfectly cast, with Steve Carell managing to both annoy and endear as a self-reverential Democratic consultant, and Rose Byrne hilarious as a Kellyanne Conway-esque Republican campaign guru who loves bold colors, ruffles, profanity and punctuation marks.

When we meet Gary Zimmer, he’s hiding in bed the morning after his surefire candidate has lost. “He’s probably halfway to Canada by now,” they’re saying on “Morning Joe.”

There IS one moment that feels particularly current. Faith lies on live TV, preposterously, leaving Gary sputtering with anger on the other side of the split screen. But he also knows it was a genius move. “She said it, and now it’s the truth,” he mutters.

Faith has already walked away. But what if these two had actually hashed it out, maybe over a burger and a Bud, this whole “alternative facts” thing? With Carell and Byrne, that would have been an argument worth hearing. Maybe even irresistible.

Daniel McFadden / Associated Press Rose Byrne and Steve Carell appear in a scene from “Irresistible.”