The Campaign (15.)
Directed by Jay Roach.
Starring Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow and Dan Ackroyd. 86 mins
Having previous aimed his satirical fire on worthy targets such as Nascar stock racing and buddy cop movie, Ferrell now turns it on the trivial and silly world of US electoral politics. The film’s approach is to take the degraded shallow spectacle and exaggerate its absurdity. It doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know but it does at least do it with belly laughs and hilarity.
Ferrell is Cam Brady, a long term Democrat congressman who is usually elected unopposed in his New Hampshire seat but finds himself having to defeat Mart Huggins (Galifianakis) who is put up to run by two evil businessmen (Lithgow and Ackroyd) who want to sell the area to China and set up a sweatshop on American soil to save on shipping costs.
The argument against The Campaign is that it is just too broad, too crude, and too silly to count as satire. Even now I expect you to retreat to the cosy profanities of The Thick Of It, which increasingly seems to be as complacent and insular as the politic class it attempts to skewer. As a political caricature Brady encompasses the whole landscape from the focused ignorance of Bush to the limitless amorality of Clinton. But beneath that he is really just another of Ferrell’s All-American bozos, selfish manchilds who are so cheerful and filled with bonhomie you don’t quite click just how monstrous they are.
The terrible thing is that you can see yourself voting for him. If The Campaign fails as satire it is because it doesn’t fulfil the first obligation of satire – it doesn’t leave You feeling smugly superior to Them
Directed by Jay Roach.
Starring Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow and Dan Ackroyd. 86 mins
Having previous aimed his satirical fire on worthy targets such as Nascar stock racing and buddy cop movie, Ferrell now turns it on the trivial and silly world of US electoral politics. The film’s approach is to take the degraded shallow spectacle and exaggerate its absurdity. It doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know but it does at least do it with belly laughs and hilarity.
Ferrell is Cam Brady, a long term Democrat congressman who is usually elected unopposed in his New Hampshire seat but finds himself having to defeat Mart Huggins (Galifianakis) who is put up to run by two evil businessmen (Lithgow and Ackroyd) who want to sell the area to China and set up a sweatshop on American soil to save on shipping costs.
The argument against The Campaign is that it is just too broad, too crude, and too silly to count as satire. Even now I expect you to retreat to the cosy profanities of The Thick Of It, which increasingly seems to be as complacent and insular as the politic class it attempts to skewer. As a political caricature Brady encompasses the whole landscape from the focused ignorance of Bush to the limitless amorality of Clinton. But beneath that he is really just another of Ferrell’s All-American bozos, selfish manchilds who are so cheerful and filled with bonhomie you don’t quite click just how monstrous they are.
The terrible thing is that you can see yourself voting for him. If The Campaign fails as satire it is because it doesn’t fulfil the first obligation of satire – it doesn’t leave You feeling smugly superior to Them
