Irresistible

Director: Jon Stewart
Year Released: 2020
Rating: 1.5

Democratic Party consultant Gary (Steve Carell), reeling from losing the Presidential Election in 2016, sees a YouTube video of a former soldier/farmer (Chris Cooper) from Wisconsin raising hell and decides he's the new face of the Donkeys and backs him in his town's mayoral campaign - the Elephants counter by sending in Faith (Rose Byrne, so good at playing bad) to advise the incumbent mayor (and bring in donations).  Stewart, who helped make The Daily Show on Comedy Central one of the smartest and wittiest shows around, seems to have a tough time translating that cleverness to the big screen (despite re-teaming with Carell): this is modern-day Capra-corn - with way too many preachy moments (dem 'yokels' is clever, ain't they?) - in which a small town swindles big money from Washington and makes both sides - Left, Right, whatever - look like suckers.  There's a very good point in all of this - about how we need to do sweeping campaign reform and deal with how these political action committees (PACs) function - but that revealing interview over the end credits makes me think it should have been a documentary instead.