【Overview】
As one of America's most important comedians and political commentators, "囧 Stuart" Jon Stewart chose to retire a year before the Trump era, and left the "Daily Show" that he worked hard for 16 years. After Trump put American politics on the ground for four years, looking back at that time, the correctness of Ji Situ's decision is far greater than the loss:
Facing the 24-hour uninterrupted political satire material, the audience lost a navigator who cut and analyzed from a relatively fair perspective, and the talk show hosts after 2016 were generally more left in the political spectrum;
But for Ji Situ, with the advent of the post-truth era, the American political machine he was familiar with, riddled with holes but capable of operating according to a certain logic, has been replaced by a muddle of even lower bottom line and more absurdity. .
Ji Situ's career is based on seeing through political games and telling the truth. But when American society has become accustomed to fake news, alternative facts, and endless divisions of opposition, is there still room for his political irony?
"Irresistible" explains: In only four years, the traditional political paradigm has been too far away from the severely polarized American society; Ji Situ is a very interesting comedian, but his comedic charm is still limited to a few minutes of TV episodes , There is still a certain distance from the big screen.
Political satire has a time limit-this feature is especially important in the era of Twitter.
If "Irresistible" was born in 2017, it is obviously timely; but in 2020, although Americans are facing another polarized election, the idea that the film wants to convey is a bit outdated and simple. .
Unreasonably high campaign funding? They are just leftovers of the 2011 SuperPAC drama by Ji Situ and Kou Xiong; for a political satirical comedy, this is obviously too lacking in urgency and crisis.
【Production】
As the second director/screenwriter/producer of Ji Situ, the main problem of "Irresistible" is not its creative intention, but still appears in the way of presentation; the film intends to show the whole through the town mayor election. The electoral system has accumulated drawbacks, but there are major problems with the structure and comedy style.
For example, the opening paragraph of a story. The film began on election day in 2016. Because the results were so shocking, the campaign managers of the two parties even set up a crash, spitting the truth to the camera during the interview. If we continue following this line of thinking, it will be very interesting to tell a completely transparent political farce + Trump background. But after that, after a hangover, a slide head, and the main line Chris Cooper, the protagonist Steve Carell played again-and this time Steve Carell , And the first appearance of the two people have no inheritance, abandoning the image that has been visually established, and returning to the traditional politician paradigm.
The biggest problem caused by multiple openings is that every time you jump in narrative time and space, it is equivalent to pressing a reset. In this way, it is impossible to set the most important character benchmark for the audience: who he/she is, what kind of personality he has, how to respond when situations arise, and what changes will happen to the end of the story.
Therefore, we can only use the lines to speculate on the motivation of the character: to expand the target voters-and this is just what our protagonist "wants" to do, not "must", which makes the whole story lack of urgency. Why must he do this at this point in time? What's the stake for failure?
When none of these questions can be clearly answered, another question of "Irresistible": if there is no contradiction, it becomes more prominent; and this can also be seen from the role of the movie.
【Performance】
As a political satirical comedy film, the comedy part of "Irresistible" is unexpectedly "resistible"; the film did not reach agreement on the degree and boundaries of comedy, and the overall is very flat. Ji Situ may want to avoid too many comedy elements to reduce the seriousness and drama of the theme, but because the film has been too simplified in terms of political content, the message he wanted to convey was seen early in the middle of the film.
In this way, because it cannot be tied to the theme, "Irresistible"’s efforts in comedy—as the Democratic Party treats minorities as it should, mechanically transforming people like money owners and rubbing wifi—can only be fragmentary. Yes, most of the interesting content is basically exhausted by the trailer; and if the whole movie is the tone of the trailer, the overall viewability will be improved by more than one level.
In these clips, the most interesting content does not come from Steve Carell ("Space Force", which will be filmed later, is much more visible), but from Kylian Conway's soul possessed. Silk Byrne: When the former is almost blank, the latter's distinctive character naturally takes the focus and firmly holds the initiative in the interaction between the two.
In contrast, Mackenzie Davis, as the "chosen girl", appears dull and lacks a sense of presence, and lacks the necessary strength in the third act and the final reversal. Whether it is the first heroine or the second heroine, it is disappointing.
You know, the background of the story is the ideological collision of the two parties in Donkey Township-but it is not clearly reflected in the film-the foreground is essentially the battle between the hero and the hero: Steve Carell sometimes needs to face Rose Byrne, and sometimes need to line up Mackenzie Davis. However, whether it is the love and killing of the former or the secret love of the latter, there is almost no description in the film, and even the shots are very few. As a result, the film lacks any visible conflicts. Most of the time, I don’t know what it is. Who are you competing with.
【Summarize】
Compassionate, self-deprecating, and (struggling to maintain) integrity, Situ is an idealist to some extent; the optimism and morality embodied in "Irresistible" is also derived from this. But the film itself has too many flaws. The shell-like characters cannot provide a coherent performance. The sporadic comedy passages are also unable to enhance the entertainment and importance of the film. 100 minutes is no better than Dave Chappell’s short section in SNL." "Election Night" is more powerful.
Perhaps 囧 Situ is still more suitable for the small screen/streaming stage. The gap between his confidence in "Irresistible" and its production level is even slightly larger than that of his debut "Rose Perfume"-which again illustrates the birth of a good comedy movie, especially a political satire comedy. , How rare it is. Perhaps Adam McKay, a director who is more familiar with filmmaking, can handle this subject better.
【related suggestion】
"vice-president"
"Space Force"
"Political Melee"
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