Long Shot takes a ‘long shot’ paying off as the year’s best film to date. Its script balances the necessary stupidity for today’s audiences yet keeps it smart enough for those who really appreciate crafty entertainment.
With a comic intro reminiscent of last year’s BLacKkKlansman,a group of Confederate-flag-toting, white supremacists discover that Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is really a reporter, and all swastikas break loose. But Fred’s bad day isn’t over yet. He’s just discovered that his creative, alternative newspaper (think The Village Voice)has just been sold to Wembley (Andy Serkis) a man who thinks hurricanes are caused by gay marriage. Fred has to resign.
With suicide thoughts on the fast track, Fred’s fast-talking best friend, Lance (O’Shea Jackson Jr. a.k.a. son of Ice Cube) invites him to a political fundraiser where Fred runs into his childhood crush…his babysitter from age thirteen…Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron). As an adult, she’s Madame Secretary. And Fred, is just, well, unemployed Fred.
There’s a lot of amusing irony in the premise. Charlotte’s been teamed up in the press with Prime Minister Steward (Alexander Skarsgard) a cheap knockoff of the real-life Justin Trudeau. And, as Secretary of State, Charlotte’s working for a President (Bob Odenkirk) who sports six Golden Globes on his resume. He plans to go into movies (from his reality TV past) once he leaves his Presidency. Sound familiar?
Conveniently, Charlotte was going to run for President in 2024, but instead finds herself convincing the current Commander in Chief what it would do for his legacy to endorse the first female President now, for 2020.
Charlotte and Fred seem an impossible fit from the start. Fred is schleppy, hip hop, to Charlotte’s oozing with elegance, statuesque, lady-in-red sophistication. But when she discovers she needs a speech writer… Fred might just be her ticket. Her mission: an environmental-esque Global Rehabilitation Initiative. But, because Fred has to write for her, he has to ask her 100 questions about her life, her likes, her dislikes. It’s like a dating site discovery except they’re not dating. It proves a smart setup for love. It’s a smarter set up for neutralizing their rankings. And in a world of optics, algorithms, images and poll numbers, Charlotte might actually need this reporter who drives her numbers up. Way up.
Part Veep and part House of Cards, the film also silently resonates a Pretty Woman throwback to boy meets girl, boys out of her league, and so on, except in reverse. The Pretty Woman analogy even becomes evident when about half way thru, the two misfits dance to Roxette’s It Must Have Been Love.
There’s an awkward moment in the film when you think ‘nah,’ Rogen is only known for his toilet humor, his Neighbors, his Family Guy, his Pineapple Express, and his breakout film Knocked Up. But then a different character emerges. The vulnerable, confident and romantic lies deep within Seth Rogen, and surfacing in Longshot…and undoubtedly thanks to scriptwriters Dan Sterling (Girls, The Office) and Liz Hannah (The Post).
There’s the long shot Charlotte will be the first woman President and there’s an even longer shot that she’ll end up with Fred. But there’s no long shot that this film has more integrity than our current administration and garnishes 4 tiaras.
. 4 tiaras