If there’s one word to describe the political comedy Irresistible, it’s condescending. Morally and politically condescending. What could have been a fun way to laugh at ourselves is rather a frustrating way to spend a couple of hours.
With Jon Stewart in the director’s chair, you might expect a more pointed film than what’s on screen. The Daily Show host of sixteen years is famous for his rants on domestic affairs, including an incendiary take-down on CNN’s Crossfire in 2004 that was so pointed it got the show cancelled. His satire on the 2020 election process should have even more to say, right?
Actually, no.
Steve Carell stars as Gary Zimmer, a campaign manager who’s in it for the planning and scheming, the pulse-quickening high of the race. Gary is mounting a comeback after his candidate lost to Trump in 2016. When he sees a video of Wisconsin farmer (and former colonel) Jack Hastings blasting Deerlaken’s city council for not caring for minorities, Gary wants him on his side. With the hope of getting Middle America to vote blue, he circles Deerlaken (filmed in the real life small town of Rockmart, Georgia) like a vulture over a cornfield, swooping in when the town is at its most vulnerable.
Gary convinces Jack (Chris Cooper) to run for mayor, a race he assumes will be over and done with in no time. He’ll outsmart a bunch of small-town, small-minded Republicans, then catch a flight back to Washington, D.C. But Jack insists that Gary stay on, making him an odd man out among the country folk. The town features the usual Republican archetypes—guys who carry guns and gulp Budweiser, and clueless women—who are supposed to be funny, but aren’t.
The problem is that Irresistible is too biting to be funny and too satirical to be serious. It seems that Stewart is going for satire along the lines of Armando Ianucci, the British director behind Veep and The Death of Stalin. Or maybe a fish-out-of-water comedy, with the Democrat who drives an electric car trying to fit in with corn-fed Republicans.
Gary’s big-city tactics are met with confused reaction shots, as if the people of Deerlaken had never before seen a billboard. He is similarly vexed by their way of living. Both sides don’t understand each other, and the filmmakers and actors have fun playing up that indifference.
In the film’s middle section, the political divide turns comical when Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) shows up. A Republican operative who tampers with elections, Faith is every bit Gary’s equal in corruption—both will do whatever it takes to see their man elected. That means rigging statistics and producing campaign commercials.
Carell and Byrne go at it, both embodying and lampooning their cold, heartless stereotypes. Watching Gary and Faith trade putdowns is like watching same-side magnets run toward each other and bounce off, over and over again. They are the best part of the movie.
But comedies, like campaigns, thrive off momentum. And although Irresistible has a few solid moments, Gary’s ignorant, smarty-pants attitude isn’t good for 100 minutes of laughs. Or very many laughs at all. His condescending jokes wear thin, then become grating. His speeches on how the system is corrupt aren’t only old news, but make no sense coming from a guy who is willing to spread lies about his running mate. “If you say it, then it’s the truth,” he tells Jack. Is this supposed to be funny, or enraging?
The film never really delves beyond simple observations, and the ending doesn’t feel angry so much as sad. Even if you agree with Stewart’s message, the tired tropes, cruel humor, and bland portrayal of Wisconsin make it easy to resist.
Irresistible is available to stream on VOD on June 26.