I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it for just about anyone, which is the film’s double-sided magic. People that already know about politics will laugh at the broad satirical parodies and enjoy the on-target belly laughs at our super-PAC age. People that don’t already know about politics will laugh at the dick jokes but be slowly immersed in political realities (a learning-by-subtle-Osmosis strategy that is about the only way you can make a topical film these days). Are some of the gags too broad? Sure. Is it more hyper-real than an exact satire? Also yes. But what this film does is brave, and more relevant to what’s really going on in the world than any film this summer not named “The Dark Knight Rises.”
What Works: How often have you ever, and I mean ever, seen a film by Adam Sandler, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, etc. that really and truly parodies what’s actually going on in the world? I don’t mean good character pieces like Funny People or sharp Hollywood satires like Tropic Thunder, but a film that is really, truly about something? Well, this film is. It has dead-on satires of good-ole-boy, sleazy blue-dog Democrats (Will Ferrell’s haircut of a politician supposedly based on John Edwards), clueless Tea Party candidates who are a lot less grass-roots populist than you think they are (Zach Galifanakis’s corporate-backed idiot who’s only there because his father is a big deal), and most satisfyingly it parodies the Super-PAC age of unlimited corporate corruption in politics. The “Motch Brothers” are a very thin riff on the Koch Brothers, and their plans to “insource” a Chinese factory to dump sub-human wages and pollution into this North Carolina district are barely even a deviation on actual business desires. Oh, and the movie actually is funny in addition to being relevant, it turns out the truth is only a half-step away from comedy anyway.
What Doesn’t Work: It’s too broad in places (the baby punching scene would end Cam’s race, not just weaken it), and the ending is a total feel-good cop-out that really undercuts the sharp and mean satire that preceded it.
What I Would Have Done Differently: For 9 tenths of this movie, it’s a very cutting, very honest satire about Southern politics (both candidates play the religious card hot and heavy) and the casual corruption of elections in the smaller districts. The only thing I would really change is the last five to ten minutes, because it felt like the movie went overly soft and feel-good in an unrealistic way. It may be satisfying to watch good triumph over corruption and the billionaire puppet masters get their comeuppance, but how many times has that happened in real life? Almost never.