[Film Review] Long Shot (2019) 7.0/10

Since presently the traditional mid-range budgeted original adult rom-com is an endangered species in Hollywood, a warm welcome must be issued to Jonathan Levine’s LONG SHOT, his 7th feature film and a third collaboration with star Seth Rogen, after 50/50 (2011) and THE NIGHT BEFORE (2015).

Present day, Rogen plays liberalistic journalist Fred Flarsky, who rage-quits after his newspaper is bought by Parker Wembley (an almost unrecognizable Andy Serkis), a media mogul he doesn’t see eye to eye with. On a paralleled plot, Charlotte Field (Theron), is the high-flying U.S. Secretary of State, who seeks the current president’s endorsement to run for presidency in 2020. The seemingly unrelated two individuals are reunited in a black-tie fundraiser party and yes, they have a history, although to the embarrassment of Fred, he wishes he could erase the past.

After perusing his articles, Charlotte enrolls the jobless Fred to her retinue as a speech-writer, to the overt disagreement of her manager Maggie Millikin (June Diane Raphael, perfects the corny contrarian sidekick role with sublime élan and nuances) and they takes on a globe-trotting to seek assent of her progressive environment-preserving plans from all the leaders of the world. Levine and his screenwriters faithfully hew to the genre’s time-honored tropes to burnish their unorthodox romance: a bullet-flying insurrection in Manila timely enkindles their romantic passion, subsequently a scenery of aurora borealis during their spat deepens their feelings, a recreational use of MDMA to chill out paves the way for more hilarity when an urgent hostage crisis needs Charlotte’s arbitration while she is still jacked up. But setback seeps in before soon and after ructions about their different ideologies, a provisional break-up is unavoidable until a last-minute turnaround sets the record straight, and we have our first lady POTUS and FMOTUS.

While the story unfolds in a well-trodden path, the two leads are gamely enjoying their gender-swapping set-up with high spirits, on top of his usual alter ego of a laidback millennial, Rogen pleasurably suits up with a Teflon carapace in the face of all the disparaging remarks and humiliating gags (including a viral video of his ejaculation while masturbating in front of Charlotte’s public speech video) and bestirs himself to look upon and canoodle with his superior partner without any hint of male egoism, and that mission is eloquently accomplished. For Theron, her marvelousness of bringing about both a competent, principled politician and a woman falling in love with trepidation and oscillation is the fount of the movie’s strength and allure, to a point, a pungent base note wafts in after the movie finishes, perhaps, this wicked world doesn’t deserve her idealized embodiment of a female president, that is depressing.

Parodying the current states of affairs with open arms (Alexander Skarsgård risibly plays the young, eligible Prime Minister of Canada with a Francophone predisposition and a practiced smile; Bob Odenkirk’s TV actor-turned-president is a goofy laughing stock, although bad-mouthing Jennifer Aniston’s movie stardom is a sexist low blow, why not try Jon Hamm or Bryan Cranston for a change, I am sure these guys will not mind either), LONG SHOT is an enterprising wish-fulfillment on the topical dire political climate in America, one could only hope dreaming is not the only thing we can do.

referential entries: Levine’s 50/50 (2011, 7.5/10); Michael Showalter’s THE BIG SICK (2017, 6.9/10).