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Go For It, For The Good of All of Us
June 4, 2019
Long Shot (2019)
Charlize Theron has no right being so funny. And Seth Rogen should not be so charming.
But they are.
The charm is touching but it's the humor that we pay the big bucks for and luckily there are plenty of both in Long Shot, the plucky, raunchy comedy directed by Jonathan Levine, written by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah and completely stolen by Theron and Rogen.
Theron plays the Secretary of State to an embarrassingly dopey President and she is reunited with Rogen, a journalist, who was in love with her when they were teens.
Theron taps Rogen to write for her as she launches her presidential campaign and the result is obnoxious, profane, surprising, honest and sincere - even if the plot is outrageous.
But is it so outrageous to present us with a skilled, principled, savvy and practical presidential candidate teaming up with an idealistic, muckraking, indecent hooligan?
And is it deranged to think the public would mock, and then embrace, a well-meaning but vulgar fool?
Let us also include June Diane Raphael whose character lives in the realm of the ambitious and the practical but eventually accepts the unsteady and the unwashed to great comedic effect.
What did we just write? We're trying to say she's a tightass. And a damn funny one.
And let us briefly say what a gift Andy Serkis is. He is simply one of the finest performers working today. He deserves an Oscar, a Heisman, and the White House. He is one of the many talents who make Long Shot a sure thing. --TK
Wednesday, June 12, 2019