Writer/director Jon Stewart delivers a smart political satire about a Democratic political consultant (Steve Carell) who helps a retired, widow, Marine (usually of the Republican persuasion) run for Mayor in small-town, Deerlaken Wisconsin. As a Democrat. If there’s any truth to what this film eventually delivers, then Joe Biden is a shoe in for President 2020.
Democrat Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell) and Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) a Republican, both understand what a political strategist does. They create a spin room full of lies to appease, annoy and hopefully convince the American people. But as the film opens on November 8, 2016, Zimmer’s strategies for making Hilary Clinton the next President, are sunk. Now from his home, bookshelves stuffed heavy of NYT’s best-selling political prose, he needs a new game. And he might just find it in rural America…
Zimmer wants to test what works for rural voters for the 2020 election. There’s irony in Bob Seger’s opening music Still the Same, as it segues into the sounds of Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy. Zimmer lands in ‘Oz’…a fish-out-of-water trying to survive in a second-floor walkup bedroom above the local bar full of local yokels. What Zimmer soon discovers is small town folk might be out of business, but everyone knows everyone’s business. And it’s kind of charming.
Zimmer’s prize candidate, Jack Hastings (Cooper), takes the mic at a town meeting declaring that budget dictates eliminating programs that good people need. These are the same people that are there for each other in times of crisis. The same people in the middle of America only paid attention to once every four years when high-swinging candidates come into town to seduce their vote. But then what? These poor farmers are left with nothing for the next four years. Yet the thread of their existence is that these folks remain their ‘brother’s keepers’ – salt of the earth types. Something we can all learn from in good times and in bad.
This is only The Daily Show Stewarts second attempt at writer-director following his well-received debut Rosewater in 2014, but Irresistible could be a classic-in-the-making right up there with Bullworth, Election and Wag the Dog.
Carell’s acting chops and film choices have been a challenge lately, but in this smartly polished and energized comedy produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B productions in conjunction with the savvy quality of Focus Features, he’s back on game.
This very timely and necessary film’s takeaway seems to be that we need empathy all around. American voters and Democrats want to join hands, but Democrats don’t know how to talk to the farmers in middle America. And that’s a shame…because our principles are one in the same. Turns out the movie Irresistible is just the antidote for troubled times. Three and a half tiaras