Item: Irresistible
Rating: 7
Author: Matt Rooney

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Story: In hopes of turning the tide back to the party's favor after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, Democratic strategist Gary Zimmer tries to get a farmer elected mayor of his small Wisconsin town, therefore earning the party a foothold back in rural America.

Review: With his newest movie, IRRESISTABLE, writer-director Jon Stewart has made a political satire that only the host of a show like THE DAILY SHOW could have made so well. On the surface, it’s an unabashedly silly, profane and digestible comedy that’s clearly taking aim at the modern political machine and, in equal measure, the two major parties controlling both sides of it. However, when the jokes come to an end and it seems the premise has become too crazy to have an accurate foothold in reality, eye-opening doses of honesty and clarity come to the forefront, the intent to leave audiences more able than ever to accept the fact that, yes, our political system is indeed f**ked up.

The story takes us to a small town in Wisconsin called Deerlaken, which is initially introduced on-screen as “Heartland, USA.” It’s the kind of rural town you can find scattered across the American Midwest, one filled with dedicated citizens and struck by hard times. For Democratic political strategist Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell) it’s simply a place he feels the party needs to target after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 race to Donald Trump. In an attempt to win back this small chunk of America, he hops on a private jet and then off that and into a rented, expensive SUV (all while Wikipediaing the state and listening to country music as a sort of homework) to hunt down the town’s progressive-leaning Colonel Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) in hopes of getting him to run for mayor.

At the outset, Stewart’s movie has the typical fish-out-of-water, city-life-versus-country-life angle written all over it. Zimmer makes it into town, tries to “mingle” by ordering what he thinks small-town folk only eat (“Burger and a Bud”), and has to deal with the lack of WiFi and amenities he’s used to, all while getting acquainted with the easy-going citizens. And, hey there’s even a hint at a disproportionately-aged romance angle between Zimmer and Hastings’ daughter, Diana (Mackenzie Davis). In essence, the only things missing are a jaunty score and Carrell stumbling in designer shoes into a cow turd. But even as these trappings and tropes are presented – and may even cause more seasoned viewers to feel like they know where things are going – Stewart makes great efforts to lean into the political satire of the premise.

When Zimmer does convince the intelligent, quiet Hastings to run for office, he does less to actually address the concerns of the struggling town and far more to make the optics of nabbing a rural progressive serve a more self-centered narrative. He has Hastings make his announcement on his farm, with the “right” cows in the background for the proper Midwest vibe and runs ads that highlight his non-Washington, down-to-Earth character that feels just so humble and relatable. Zimmer doesn’t seem to care about the town’s needs so much as what this win would represent, but in both credit to Stewart and Carrell that doesn’t mean he’s unlikeable. Misinformed? Blinded by ambition? Absolutely. He’s a flawed character who embodies what a lot of people distrust in politics. But he’s also charming and affable, and while he may be ignoring their primary concerns, he does seem to grow closer to and care about the people of the town. Carrell is the perfect actor for a role like this, capable of making you like and maybe root for him even when he’s kind of being a jackass.

But all bets all are off, though, when Republican strategist Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) enters the race – with their tunnel-vision rivalry spiraling the election out of control and down a path of mud-slinging and over-spending that turns this little race into a national spectacle. In one scene where the honesty of Stewart’s story shines through comes when Hastings, having been dragged to a wealthy fundraiser all the way in New York, clearly, passionately tears the whole thing down by speaking to how ridiculous it all is – how he has to get these rich people who have never heard of his town to give him money so he can, maybe, become mayor. Zimmer praises his impassioned speech and its honesty – moreso because it will look good for them optically – and not that he will actually take what Hastings said to heart.

Cooper doesn't get as much screentime as viewers may want (although there's a reason for it), but he makes the most out of his screentime as Hastings. He's a humble man who is too kind to mock political donors to their face, but is such a passionate speaker as he drops a truth bomb or two. In more perfect casting, Byrne masterfully adopts a sort of cold, Kellyanne Conway demeanor when the lights are on Faith, only to relish in prodding the sexual tension between her and Zimmer behind closed doors.

It’s in Zimmer and Brewster's growing feud where Stewart dives deeper into the ridiculousness of how far these two strategists are willing to go to beat each other, represented likewise in the projection of the 24-hour news cycle that can’t get enough of this once small-scale election. Clear mocking of networks like MSNBC and Fox News may come off as a little too cartoonish and on the nose at times, but it doesn’t make it hit home any less, and it certainly doesn’t make it any less funny. The silliness perhaps hits its peak when Zimmer brings in a tech billionaire donor, who is so wealthy and old he walks into the small campaign office in a mechanized suit and speaks with a voice automator. But to keep listing all the ways Stewart pokes fun at this crazy, frustrating system would be both exhausting and make it far less fun for you to watch. I’ll just end it by saying the attention to detail he put into bringing this fictional campaign to life makes it feel like a big playground of political irresponsibility – albeit one that seems to exist simply for Stewart to play around in – incredibly fun to jump into.

In a recent New York Times interview Stewart said he was inspired by the real campaign between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel – a small Georgia Congressional race that received widespread media attention and raised over $55 million in campaign dollars, making it the most expensive House election races in history. With his movie, he manages to point out the absurdity of everything that race stood for, especially considering what better things that money could've been spent on. By the end, I can imagine some people feeling like they would've rather watched a documentary on the actual subject matter from Stewart, rather than a 90-100 minute silly comedy lampooning it all. But the comedy is what we got, and coming from the mind of Stewart, it's hardly anything to be mad about.