1.5, United States/Canada

Man of the Year

2006 / Barry Levinson > Immense is the level of frustration involved in watching Man of the Year. Levinson drops the balls on a premise that we’ve always joked about, packing it tightly and sweetly at the front and then quickly letting the air out of the bag until there’s nothing left in the bag. It’s a film about problems, but not solutions. It would have been impressive to actually see what a comedian does once he takes the oval office, but here the action is curtailed into an incredulous scenario which does nothing to advance the initial premise. The endgame is one that reads like an amateur parable, filled with one-sided morality and Hollywood cliche. After the wondrous Wag the Dog, this is a truly misguided film that could learn a lesson or two from Warren Beatty’s Bulworth. Skip this, watch Robin Williams: Live on Broadway instead.

Standard