Movie Review

Jon Stewart takes on modern politics and more with Irresistible

It’s been five years since Jon Stewart left as host of The Daily Show, and six years since his debut film, Rosewater. In that time, the political world has changed just a teensy bit, and if ever there was a good time for an insightful political satire from a premier satirist, it is now.

Reasonable people will disagree as to how effective Stewart’s new film, Irresistible, is at achieving that goal, but it is one of those films where one viewing may not be sufficient. Steve Carell stars as Gary Zimmer, a Democratic political strategist who’s still smarting from the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Looking for a way to push his preferred narrative, he finds an ideal vessel in Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), a seemingly progressive farmer/former Marine in the fictional town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin.

After a video of Hastings berating his city council over their stance on immigration goes viral, Zimmer travels to Deerlaken to try to convince Hastings to run for mayor. Zimmer is soon fully invested in making sure that Hastings wins over his conservative neighbors, especially after rival strategist Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) joins the fight on the Republican side.

Stewart, who wrote and directed the film, certainly has enough knowledge about the political industrial complex to craft a story that both lampoons and criticizes it. The only issue is that for much of the film Stewart appears content to play in the familiar waters of “big city person comes to a small town and learns the error of his ways.” There is the occasional pointed critique of the role of money in politics or negative campaigning, but it all seems relatively light.

Without revealing specifics, an event toward the end of the film reframes the story, giving it much more depth in the process. The more you think about it, the more you realize that not only is Stewart taking on the insane political system, he’s also challenging the way we watch movies. On multiple occasions, he plays on assumptions we make about certain types of characters, relationships, and storylines, only to upend each of them in clever ways.

Unfortunately, that’s only in hindsight. On first viewing (which is all most people will give it), it’s lacking the oomph necessary to fully engage viewers. Familiarity between characters, an essential building block in believing relationships, is all but missing. It’s difficult to invest in an outcome when you never truly get to know anybody in the film.

Stewart is more in his comfort zone when commenting on the 24-hour news cycle, political spin, and other elements related to modern-day campaigning. Although the film is left-leaning, he takes potshots at both sides of the aisle, showing more disgust in the system itself than a desire to prove how one side’s viewpoints are correct.

Carell is great at playing smarmy characters, and he makes Zimmer work relatively well. Cooper goes low-key for his performance, which works perfectly, especially when he’s paired with Mackenzie Davis, who plays his daughter, Diana, probably the most interesting character in the film. Byrne is over-the-top as Faith, serving as Stewart’s avatar for all that’s wrong with conservative punditry.

Irresistible is an entertaining film in fits and starts, but Stewart doesn’t find his storytelling groove until the very end. By that point, many viewers may have already given up, never an ideal circumstance for a film with as much to say as this one.

---

Irresistible is available starting June 26 via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, GooglePlay, Alamo On Demand, and more. It is also playing in a handful of local theaters, including iPic Fairview and select Fun Movie Grill locations.

Steve Carell in Irresistible.

Steve Carell in Irresistible

Photo by Daniel McFadden/Focus Features

Steve Carell in Irresistible.

hoop it up

Houston festival hosts dramatic reading of basketball-inspired TV show

cinema arts festival hoopztown reading

Photo by Trent Wittenbach

Hoopzdreams tells the story of a gifted, multiracial athelete.

This year’s Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), which starts this Thursday, November 6, offers plenty of film screenings – both feature-length films and shorts – as well as panel discussions, Q&As, workshops, etc. But the fest will also have a staged reading of the TV pilot Hoopztown, this Saturday at 2 pm at Six Foot Studios.

Hoopztown centers around Maya Hernandez, a gifted, multiracial athlete on track to be considered for the inaugural WNBA in 1996. She moves back to her hometown of Houston, where it’s revealed that her mother, a janitor at Houston Medical Center, is diagnosed with cancer.

The project is created and written by Fleurette S. Fernando, an educator, director, choreographer, arts administrator, and founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program at University of Houston, where she serves as an associate professor. “I wrote this story for the women in my life; my mother, my sisters, my teachers, my colleagues, my girlfriends, my students and particularly for my daughter,” says Fernando. “Her journey as a student athlete and the relationships she built with the girls on her various teams through the turbulent and magical years of her youth was an inspiration.”

hoopztown Fleurette S. Fernando Elizabeth Sosa Bailey Collaborators Elizabeth Sosa Bailey and Fleurette S. Fernando.Courtesy of Elizabeth Sosa Bailey

Hoopztown has gone through multiple iterations. During the 2015 ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition, Fernando was a finalist for her concept of the project. From there, the pilot (originally titled Hoopz) and loglines for a 10-episode run were put into motion. That first episode, titled “Rebound,” focuses on Maya’s first day at her new job, coaching a girls’ basketball team at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school.

“Hoopztown is an ode to a woman’s journey through the lens of many races, ages and circumstances,” she says. “It’s a tribute to the underdog and a homage to a woman’s perilous path through a man’s world. Nowhere is this struggle more acutely demonstrated, mentally, emotionally, physically and economically, than in the arena of competitive sports in America.”

Since Fernando and her creative partner, Elizabeth Sosa Bailey, are both active members of

the Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) board, they knew they had to do a reading during this year’s fest.

“There is so much of myself that I see in this story, as someone who left a career to return home when my father was diagnosed with cancer and as a mixed race Latina understanding the duality of identity,” says Sosa Bailey. “Even the high school that Hoopztown is set in is much like my own. I attended Lamar High School, making me about a decade younger than the characters in the story. There are all of these wonderful little coincidences in Hoopztown.”

The project is a beneficiary of its second Houston Arts Alliance grant made possible through the

City of Houston Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA). The reading cast includes over 20 actors, with Eva Marie Thomas playing the main role. Open to the public with a Pay What You Can ticket structure, the event invites the audience to experience the first run-through of what is slated to be the first episode, filmed in Houston using local cast and crew. The audience can also provide feedback and contribute to the project’s fundraising initiative to get to the next stage of filming.

For tickets, go to the Houston Cinema Arts Festival website.

performing-arts tv festivals

Loading...