Irresistible - Review

Jon Stewart still has a taste for political snark

Director: Jon Stewart

Writer: Jon Stewart 

Staring: Steve Carell, Chris Cooper, Rose Byrne, Mackenzie Davis, Topher Grace, Natasha Lione, Will Sasso

Info: R  1 hr 41 min Comedy, Drama Focus Features   June 26, 2020   Theaters, VOD

Grade: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

Jon Stewart’s new film, Irresistible, offers an honest and funny look into what really goes on behind the scenes in American politics. Stewart takes a lighthearted approach to tackle serious political problems and uses it to good effect while still taking those issues seriously; and Jon has a lot he wants to say to Americans right now.

In fact, Stewart's voice is so strong you can hear him in the characters themselves every time someone gives a passionate monologue. He walks right on the line of “preachy” and for some he may cross too far over, but he’s making too many good points to really hold it against him.

Steve Carell plays Gary Zimmer, a Washington Democrat and “carpetbagger” trying to get a small town farmer from Wisconsin (Chris Cooper) to run for mayor of his struggling farm town that’s going broke.

EW

We see Gary as a good guy at first, or good enough at least, but his true personality becomes revealed when the race heats up after a political rival, and complicated love interest (Rose Byrne), joins the other side. His opponent seems willing to do and say anything to win and it seems Gary is too. But, expectations are subverted when Gary realizes he’s not in as much control of the situation as he thought.

The real message seems to be that the system is dysfunctional no matter what side of the political aisle you're standing on and regular people are more powerful when we work together and stop waiting for the politicians to save us and take time to understand how the dysfunctional system works.

Some will probably be turned off by Irresistible when it gets on it’s soapbox, or might avoid it entirely just because of Stewart's involvement. However, this is an unvarnished, transparent and polarizing look at political issues the affect all of us as Americans and speaks truth to power. Irresistible can't help but wear its heart on it’s sleeve and show it to whoever will look.