Jon Stewart’s ‘Irresistible’ isn’t

MOVIE REVIEW

“IRRESISTIBLE”

Rated R. Available on streaming platforms.

Grade: B-

A contemporary comedy about the insanity of campaign financing, “Irresistible,” streaming Friday, is writer-director Jon Stewart’s satirical second feature.

It begins soon after the 2016 election as out-of-work Dan Zimmer (Steve Carell), a veteran Democratic campaign strategist, discovers a YouTube video of a town hall meeting in Deerlaken, a small Minnesota town.

As an anti-immigration bill is being argued, an ex-Marine cattle rancher Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) stands up and speaks up for compassion and being a good neighbor.

Zimmer is thunderstruck. “This man is a Democrat, he just doesn’t know it,” he declares as he flies to the Midwest to convince Hastings to run for mayor against the incumbent Mayor Braun (Brent Sexton).

Soon, the opposition has arrived in Rose Byrne’s Republican strategist Faith Brewster.

Money, gobs of money, is pouring in along with national attention from CNN and Fox News.

Before anyone can whistle a happy tune, the candidates get expensive billboards, TV spots that reek of polished image-building, a slew of volunteers and focus groups.

• 

  Chris Cooper stars as Jack Hastings, Brent Sexton as Mayor Braun and Steve Carell as Gary Zimmer in IRRESISTIBLE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Daniel McFadden / Focus Features

• 

  Rose Byrne stars as Faith Brewster and Steve Carell as Gary Zimmer in IRRESISTIBLE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Daniel McFadden / Focus Features

• 

  Steve Carell stars as Gary Zimmer in IRRESISTIBLE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Daniel McFadden / Focus Features

of

Expand

“Irresistible” is so mild it helps if you realize Stewart was actually inspired by a ridiculous Atlanta special election where the political rivals spent $50 million.

If Stewart’s comic tone here never settles into a satisfactory rhythm, Carell, a veteran of Stewart’s long-running stint hosting “The Daily Show,” is both over the top and diminished. His Zimmer never seems to be quite in focus. Byrne hasn’t much to do other than scowl.

As the novice challenger, the supposedly inexperienced half of dueling candidates, Cooper easily embodies this speak softly, do the right thing idealized vision of what salt of the earth can mean in image-building.

Stewart gets laughs from the locals who are herded around like so much cattle as the money flows in and the competition intensifies. Sigh for the good neighbor local who finds herself crushed when Zimmer ignores her specially baked breakfast roll as the political whirlpool swirls.

Surprisingly, only when the lengthy end credits begin does Stewart get to the heart of what he wants to say as he interviews a D.C. veteran about the flood of anonymous money being spent on elections of every kind and size.

Here “Irresistible” exerts a vibrant force field where questions are being asked and the answers are hardly encouraging. Which is why, as the credits finally end, the title comes up with RESIST in the middle, highlighted. Hardly subtle, but effective.

Yet for the film itself? It’s highly resistible.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Z6Row6