Do I even need to review this misbegotten Jon Stewart-directed bomb? Everything about Stewart’s irrelevant and tone-deaf “Irresistible” turns out to be out-of-touch with the current political zeitgeist. The former late-night show host commits an almost unredeemable act, he manages to make himself look completely out-of-touch with today’s political spectrum.
The film stars Steve Carrell as Gary Zimmer, a top Democratic strategist who had a key part in Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign. Flabbergasted by her election loss, Zimmer decides to connect with “real” America, the Midwestern part of the country Clinton didn’t pay much attention to during her presidential run, which, Stewart acknowledges quite blatantly, most likely cost her the election.
Then a light bulb switches on in Gary’s head, he sees a viral video of a rural farmer, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), going after a Wisconsin town’s Republican mayor (Brent Sexton) at a town hall meeting. Gary decides that he’s going to groom this rural farmer into becoming the next big thing in Wisconsin Democrat politics. Enter Gary’s nemesis, his Republican opponent, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), who helped get Trump elected and decides to, it seems just to spite Gary, back up the Mayor’s re-election campaign.
A problem with the premise of “Irresistible” is that the small Wisconsin town of Deerlaken must have a population of not more than 1,000 people, and yet, establishment figures Faith and Gary decide this is where they’ll spend their hard-earned time in political campaigning. Another issue I had is in the depiction of Deerlaken itself. This is a town that is supposed to represent the America that Donald Trump won over in 2016, but Stewart seems to forget to actually, you know, depict the midwest, nor any of the serious working-class problems which had voters steering towards Trumpism. We get caricatures instead of issues, and more-than-a-few all-too-obvious jabs at establishment politicians.
Carell and Byrne are quite good as the dueling political nemeses, these two morally-bankrupt individuals insist that any lie becomes truth if you say it “repeatedly, doggedly, and with unearned confidence.” Meanwhile, the always-great Cooper plays Jack Hastings with such incorruptible integrity that there is an aura of plausible deniability to this character. An eye-rolling moment comes late in the film when Gary takes him to New York to squeeze political donations out of the 1% only to end up getting an earful from Jack instead. No corrupt money can buy this man and, laying it all on too thickly, Stewart makes sure you know that.
The way Stewart wrote his screenplay is the exact reason why Hilary and the Democrats lost in 2016, they just don’t get it. Stewart struggles to connect with the plight of the working American, instead, giving us a film seen through the eyes of a rich, white man. The film has none of the potent satirical sting Stewart’s late-night show had in its landmark run during the aughts, nor does it produce any sort of laughs with its satirical jabs. It’s shocking to see Stewart, an artist responsible for some of the most insightful political journalism of the modern-era, produce such a simple-minded and ill-researched movie. [D]
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.