00:00 Can I be completely honest with you? No bull.
00:03 Be nice.
00:05 Hey guys, it's Sean O'Connell, the Managing Director here at CinemaBlend
00:08 with a review of Jon Stewart's new film Irresistible, starring Steve Carell.
00:12 And it is coming to a digital VOD starting on Friday, June 26th.
00:17 I want to get into all of the reasons why this film is absolutely worth your time.
00:21 But before we do that, do me a favor, go down and hit subscribe, turn on your notifications.
00:25 We're trying to review almost every new film that comes to Video On Demand
00:28 and eventually into theaters.
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00:32 to find out what you should watch.
00:34 For my first point, I want to mention that this is a very intelligent comedy
00:40 that does exactly the type of analysis on politics and media that you would expect from Jon Stewart.
00:45 And watching it made me realize how much I missed him at the helm of The Daily Show.
00:49 I was a religious audience member for Jon Stewart when he was running the news show over at The Daily Show.
00:56 And of course, all of the people that sort of sprung from that warehouse of comedy and introspection
01:01 would include his irresistible star Steve Carell,
01:04 but also John Oliver, who's doing his own thing on HBO at the moment.
01:08 Yes, this is a political comedy, and I can totally understand why,
01:11 if you are saturated by the news cycle, you might not want to dial into an entertainment film
01:18 that would be escapism from the grind of the political headlines.
01:22 This seems a bit crazy.
01:24 But Jon Stewart brings the type of analysis that makes this highly entertaining as a comedy
01:30 while you're watching it.
01:32 And it's not a red versus blue, and it's not a far right versus far left at all.
01:38 It walks pretty strongly down the middle and comments on everything that's going on in the political landscape,
01:45 but also making a huge difference between the DC elite who exist inside the Beltway,
01:52 you know, the ones who are really immersed in the political game that's being played,
01:56 but also to the Rust Belt mainstream Americana and how both sides sort of react to each other.
02:03 Jon Stewart has figured out the perfect way to tell a story that appeals to everybody,
02:06 and for that I want to rave about the script in our next section.
02:09 Nice.
02:10 Jon Wayne and a tractor have a baby and all you can say is nice?
02:13 Alright, as mentioned, I want to rave about the script,
02:18 and maybe at this point you're asking me what is Irresistible even about?
02:21 Great question.
02:22 So Steve Carell plays a political strategist, a Democratic political strategist,
02:27 who zeroes in on a potential candidate for a mayoral race in Wisconsin,
02:33 and that candidate is played by Chris Cooper.
02:35 Chris Cooper is a farmer who essentially wants to stand up at a local town meeting
02:40 to defend some practices that he thinks are going against the people of the town.
02:45 If you can't leave your principles in the bad times,
02:48 I guess they aren't principles, they're just hobbies.
02:51 Steve Carell coming off of the brutal loss by Hillary Clinton to Trump in the 2016 election
02:59 feels like he needs to start to turn the tide back in his favor,
03:02 and this movie exists in a world where the 2016 election happened,
03:06 and it's very much a commentary to how we are going to rebound after that news cycle.
03:10 Colonel Jack Hastings is our key back into the great now swing state of Wisconsin.
03:17 He just doesn't know it yet.
03:19 He heads to Wisconsin, Steve Carell's character heads to Wisconsin,
03:22 recruits Chris Cooper's down-home farmer to get into this mayoral race,
03:26 mainly because he wants to raise some headlines and bring some awareness to the Democrats
03:31 potentially reaching out to the Rust Belt, Middle America citizens,
03:35 but then he gets countered by Rose Byrne's character, who of course is a Republican strategist,
03:41 and she wants to campaign for the candidate who might potentially bring Carell's candidate down.
03:45 It's good to see you.
03:46 Yeah.
03:47 You look fat.
03:48 And it's all about how much attention we bring to local elections,
03:53 how much that spins out to affect the national news cycle,
03:57 how the two sides manipulate each other and manipulate the people in the process
04:01 in order to get what they're going for, and it's just incredibly surprising.
04:05 I had no clue where this movie was going.
04:08 It sounds like it would sort of lay itself out in a very predictable way,
04:11 but the movie is far from predictable.
04:13 It had so many surprises packed into it that, again, it reminded me just how smart Jon Stewart is
04:19 and just how much he knows about politics, everything he knows about being really funny,
04:24 and making those two worlds collide in this script really, really blew me away.
04:28 Jon Stewart wrote it in addition to directing it.
04:30 He doesn't star in the film at all.
04:32 He allows his cast from Steve Carell to Rose Byrne to Chris Cooper to Mackenzie Davis
04:36 to really do the heavy lifting, but as a writer/director,
04:39 it has Jon Stewart's insights and thumbprints all over it,
04:42 and I think the movie benefits because of that.
04:44 What do you think of that right there?
04:46 I don't--
04:47 Sorry, not you, Dot.
04:49 I also want to single out how great Steve Carell is in this part,
04:54 and it's the type of role that only he could play.
04:58 It just plays to his strengths.
04:59 We like Steve Carell as a person, even though we don't necessarily know him,
05:03 and part of this is because we know him from The Office
05:05 and we know him from some really great comedies that he's been in over the years.
05:10 He's become a household name, and we just feel like we would get along with him.
05:14 But his character, Gary, in this film,
05:16 while he has to be likable and almost win over the trust of the Wisconsin town
05:21 that he's trying to infiltrate,
05:23 he's also a D.C. politician tried and true,
05:27 which means that he will lie to your face, he will manipulate you,
05:29 he will really play the game to get what he wants out of this.
05:33 That's a lie. That's a lie!
05:35 No, that's-- What are you even doing?
05:37 I like that Jon Stewart really nailed the casting of bringing in Steve Carell,
05:41 but I actually want to throw it to Jon Stewart
05:43 so he can tell you exactly why he thought Steve Carell was the only person
05:46 who could have played this part.
05:48 I wrote it for him, and he was the first person that I showed it to when I was done.
05:54 He wasn't aware that I was writing it,
05:56 and wasn't aware that I was writing it for him,
05:58 but when I had finished it, I sent it over to him
06:01 because I knew there were, you know,
06:04 no one else that I could think of that could pull off
06:07 a character that had to be inappropriate and unsavory
06:13 while remaining lovable and interesting.
06:16 Now, listen, it's June, and a lot can happen between now and the end of the year,
06:23 but I don't see how Irresistible would fall out of my top ten for films this year.
06:28 I loved it. I'm giving it four and a half stars out of five.
06:32 It had so many surprises.
06:34 It went in so many different directions that I did not anticipate it going.
06:37 I thought Steve Carell was perfectly cast.
06:39 Chris Cooper's fantastic. Mackenzie Davis is fantastic.
06:42 Rose Byrne steals multiple scenes as the Republican strategist
06:46 going against Steve Carell,
06:48 and the way that they play off of each other is really, really smart and funny.
06:51 The whole thing is just incredibly intelligent,
06:53 and it's something that I think we needed right now
06:55 as a way to sort of wash away the negativity of the news cycle
07:00 and find something really entertaining in both politics and media analysis.
07:04 So all credit goes to Jon Stewart for putting together
07:06 an incredibly intelligent, really, really funny movie
07:10 that we can use right now as a distraction
07:12 now that it's hitting VOD on Friday, June 26th.
07:15 Now it's time for me to hear from you guys.
07:17 Please go check out Irresistible.
07:19 I really thought it was great. I think you're going to like it, too,
07:21 but I want you to come back and give me your review
07:23 once you've had a chance to see it.
07:25 It's going to be on paid VOD starting on Friday, June 26th.
07:29 All the different places that you can rent from Focus Features.
07:32 Once you watch it, come back here.
07:34 Leave your review in the comment section down below.
07:36 I want to hear what you guys think about it.
07:38 I want to hear if it works as well for you guys as it did for me.
07:41 While you're down there, hit subscribe.
07:43 Turn on your notifications, and then that way,
07:45 every single time that we post a new video here on CinemaBlend's YouTube page,
07:47 you guys can come and watch it.
07:49 [MUSIC]
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