Man of the Year (2006)
Bekkah:
So Danya wanted to watch this movie about Robin Williams in a presidential election since the inauguration was this week (FUCK YOU, TRUMP) and I gotta say I am really glad we watched this one after the election. Because watching a charismatic, kinda manic television star bumble his way to winning a presidential election was not something I was prepared to watch in October 2020. Just because I agree with his “radical” views on the environment and healthcare doesn’t mean that white dudes famous for being on TV should be president. As we often see, there is a woman who is smarter than everyone else in this movie (“I’m Laura Linney”) and her big reward is losing her job but getting married. Jeff Goldblum was an Evil Corporate Dude in this one. Not much screen time and this was definitely during the Jeff-Is-A-Totally-Normal-Actor phase, but we still got some good wiggly eyes, if no lip licks or deep Vs. Bonus points for his pronunciation of “Eleanor” that reminded me of Ted Denson in The Good Place. This is a solid movie! But also reinforced a lot of what I hated in politics and also omg, not even a token person of color to be seen.
Danya:
And what a week it was! Only yesterday we got to see the first woman sworn in as vice president by a Latina supreme court justice, and today Bekkah and I are drunk watching Jeff Goldblum be a meanie in 2006. Laura Linney stands up for ethics and kicks ass, even as she is being maligned at every turn by the evil “Delacroy” voting machine corporation, who (oops!) has a major flaw in their software and a late night comedian (ala Jon Stewart) is elected president. Hilarity ensues! In the end this is a lovely fairy tale that was right to watch today. I also appreciated that I pressured Bekkah (in MARYLAND) into committing voter fraud by voting for the best dinosaur in MASSACHUSETTS (the correct dinosaur is Podokesaurus holyokensis). THEMATIC. And now that we watched this movie and survived four years of trumpy fascism, I look forward to being bored by politics, but never by Jeff Goldblum.
7/10 Godlumbs
A comedian who hosts a news satire program decides to run for president, and a computerized voting machine malfunction gets him elected.
Director: Barry Levinson
Writer: Barry Levinson
Stars: Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Lewis Black