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'Irresistible' Review With Casey

Courtesy of "Irresistible" movie.

Irresistible is a satirical comedy about an out-of-touch political strategist (a predictable Steve Carell, Beautiful Boy, 2018) who moves from Washington D.C. to rural Wisconsin to help a conservative farmer (a laconic Chris Cooper, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019) run for mayor. 

Watching this film felt like the excitement of playing miniature golf when you hit the ball perfectly and watch with anticipation as the ball rolls to a hole in one. And instead of getting a hole in one, someone sneezes in your mouth and gives you the coronavirus! This film isn't the first one Jon Stewart wrote and directed (the first was Rosewater from 2014) which makes Irresistible all the more disappointing. Jon Stewart wrote for and starred in over 2,000 episodes of The Daily Show from 1999 to 2015, a brilliant example of politically focused humor that was simultaneously informative. I don't understand why this film wasn't funnier, more incisive, or more nuanced. 

Irresistible is not a story about opposing political parties or the flaws in specific political views. Instead, it serves as an indictment of the entire campaign process being an unmanageable (and unregulated) storm of demographic targets, fundraising, pamphlets, and lying. It felt like the humor was watered down to the point of flavorlessness in an effort to instruct viewers on how the electoral system operates as an unstoppable money machine of corruption and manipulation. The tired stereotypes don't help keep the film interesting either (i.e. affluent city people are entitled snobs and humble country people are simple-minded dumb-dumbs). I couldn't figure out if the film was trying to be a witty comedy, a serious drama, or an open examination of political rites of passage. I guess Jon Stewart couldn't decide either, so he tried to include all three.

A few moments are funny and give some unexpected laughs, but the film ultimately comes off as preachy and void of emotion. Wouldn't it be more educational (and more fun) to just watch a documentary on the History Channel about our country's politics being chained to money instead of ideas? A better title for Irresistible would be Avoidable or Ineffective

Casey T. Allen is a native of Utah who graduated from Utah State University with a Bachelor's degree in English in 2007. He has worked in many capacities throughout USU campus and enjoys his time at UPR to continually exercise his writing.