Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Irresistible’ on HBO, Jon Stewart’s Rocky Return to Political Comedy

New on HBO after being released on VOD last summer, Irresistible is a political satire written and directed by Jon Stewart, once the country’s greatest political humorist. Stewart has been quiet since leaving the helm of The Daily Show in 2015, but he penned a screenplay inspired by events occurring in 2016 and 2017, which, in the current political headspace, feels like several million years ago. So he’s treading potentially treacherous ground here; can he walk the line between timely and timeless?

IRRESISTIBLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Gary Zimmer (Steve Carell) blew it in 2016. BLEW IT. He was the Democratic strategist working the media spin room during Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and we all know how that train wrecked itself in a diaper landfill of pain and despair and rotting plastic Wal Mart flip-flops. If the loss still stings, well, Gary may be comforted by the caprese salad he enjoys on private-jet flights, one of which he takes to Deerlaken, Wisconsin to groom a blue mayoral candidate in opposition to the reigning Republican guy.

Gary’s target is a unicorn in yokelville, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), a military veteran and farmer who’s the star of a YouTube video in which he confronts the mayor with an earnest pro-immigration plea. Gary smells an opportunity to make a mountain out of a molehill in a swing state. He rolls into Deerlaken — pop. 5,000, full of boarded-up Main St. storefronts, decimated by the closure of a U.S. Marine Corps base — and tries not to be condescending, but it’s like asking an elephant not to be gray. Jack, usually a gruffster of few words, seems reluctant at first, but agrees to square off against the incumbent while his daughter, Diana (Mackenzie Davis), wears a concerned expression as she goes elbow-deep into a cow on a quest for a calf.

They drum up volunteers, grab the phones and start hustling for contributions. Gary even opens an honest-to-Betsy campaign office. The commotion draws the attention of Gary’s rival, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), a doppelganger of the many blonde women Donald Trump tasks with lying bald-facedly to TV cameras. She’s mean as a pack of chupacabrae. Both start pumping money into their campaigns as POLITICAMANIA takes over li’l Deerlaken, and we worry that people like Jack and Diana are gonna get mauled to death by the giant American political threshing machine.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Irresistible could’ve been Wag the Dog or Bulworth, but alas, has a little too much Swing Vote and Man of the Year in it.

Performance Worth Watching: Byrne is a roaring hoot as the cynical savage amoral Republican with nary a hint of a conscience beneath her remorselessly plucked exterior.

Memorable Dialogue: Jack’s campaign slogan: “Jack Hastings — a redder kind of blue.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: A banana is at its utmost deliciousness when it’s perfectly yellow. Too green, and it’s unpleasantly starchy. Too brown, and it’s overwhelmingly sweet. Irresistible is a rapidly browning banana — but it’s not inedible.

Stewart used to turn commentary on a dime on The Daily Show, but the Trump-era news cycle spins the washer drum so quickly, our clothes get shredded. It whirls ever faster in 2020, an election year with an impeachment, a pandemic, civil unrest, murder hornets, unprecedented partisan/culutural divide and a distressingly small supply of new Rick and Morty episodes. We all look like we’ve been blasted with buckshot. Political comedy is a whack-a-mole game on a detached ferris wheel rolling into the ocean during a hurricane. Filmmaking is a slow process, and probably isn’t the ideal medium to comment on our current times — and I say that as someone who loves the art form more than any other.

It isn’t Stewart’s fault that this year is a death-dervish. But Irresistible is a tonal misfire. He aims for a blend of witty comedy and mostly subtle political commentary in a big, dumb, loud, harsh, lazy, distressing time. It’s like putting a Family Circus panel in the middle of a wear-a-mask argument on Facebook. And the movie really isn’t that bad! Divorced from the rest of the world, it’s smart and sometimes funny, Carell is still perfect at cringe-comedy, Cooper bullseyes the cut-the-crap Midwestern farmer role, Byrne steals scenes, hypocrisy is as noble a target for satire as ever and it’s wise for Stewart to take aim at the American political system instead of just one party. But I kept wishing the movie would grow larger than its context and become a parable, instead of exploring a two-year-old problem in a middle-America microcosm.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Bottom line, Irresistible doesn’t live up to its title.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream Irresistible