Long Shot (2019)
One of the more tired of cliches among the post-Apatow raunchy romantic comedies is the trope of the shlubby geek always seeming to have beautiful girlfriends, most of them completely unrealistic in the manner or rationale as to how such a thing would happen. This idea is acknowledged by Long Shot in showing the progression of how a jobless, shlubby misfit could have a chance with a beautiful, intelligent, strong woman who not only is currently working as the Secretary of State but who is also a strong contender to be the President of the United States. Balderdash, most would think, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make such an outrageous mismatch plausible to consider in this fantasy that’s just enough on the side of believability to stick all of the landings it should for success.
That shlub is named Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen), an established left-wing journalist whose uncompromisingly progressive Brooklyn-based online news site has found itself taken over by a right-wing corporatist that he refuses to kowtow to. Due to his deep-seated principles, Fred quits immediately, but he’s bummed out at having to start over again. His best friend, Lance (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) takes him out to blow off some steam and forget hir troubles for a while with a performance from Boyz II Men at a swank charity fund-raising party, and while there, Flarsky ends up running into the Secretary of State of the United States, Charlotte Field, who he just so happens to have once known, as the older girl next door who used to babysit him, and with whom he has had a crush ever since. The two end up catching up, and it just so happens that she’s looking for a writer to punch up her speeches with wit and humor, and with him needing a job, it’s impossible to say no. He’s a refreshing change of pace to Field, who hasn’t been able to enjoy herself for a very long time, but with presidential aspirations on her horizon, the gossipy public isn’t likely going to accept such a mismatch should she pursue Flarsky romantically.
Although much of the film looks like setup for certain disaster, Long Shot maintains a very good sense of tone and snarky banter throughout, with a flirtatious romantic air that capitalizes from an unlikely chemistry between Theron and Rogen that makes them feel like two people who could find enjoyment in each other’s company, enough to lay down a foundation that something might develop if she didn’t have a very public career and aspirations to concern herself with. While we never get to the point where we think any woman could find love with Flarsky, we do get to see why Field might, whose happiness mostly seems to stem from the period of the late 1980s and early 1990s when she felt alive, free, and unconfined by lofty demands, which the free-wheeling journalist helps her reconnect to by never quite letting go of that immature side of him.
Long Shot is directed by Jonathan Levine, who worked with Rogen a couple of times before in his critically acclaimed dramedy, 50/50, and the lesser Christmas comedy, The Night Before, which he also co-wrote. Though ad-libbed to the point of possible irrelevancy, the script for Long Shot is credited to Dan Sterling, who co-wrote that other political-leaning Seth Rogen comedy known as The Interview, and Liz Hannah, one of the screenwriters for a much more serious political film, Steven Spielberg’s The Post. At its core, its a “Cinderella story” with a gender reversal angle, where the beautiful politician replaces the handsome well-to-do businessman and the lower-berth writer is in place of the common girl with a pure heart and big dreams of attaining something thought unattainable from her position.
In most stories, the upper-class character usually doesn’t change but comes to realize the worth of the object of desire to the point where class differentials don’t matter. In Long Shot, refreshingly, they end up meeting in the middle, shedding all pretenses on who they are to just deal with each other as peers with common interests, with the only looming tension as to whether Secretary Field views their burgeoning relationship as a fling that she’ll quickly put back in its proper place once she needs to get serious about her presidential run.
As far as performances go, Seth Rogen is as we usually see him, but his shtick continues to work here, ingratiating and very funny, willing to do pretty much anything to get a laugh, except completely pandering to overreaching material. Despite his constant quips, his humanity and vulnerability shine through where it counts, and it comes across as genuine. It’s really Charlize Theron who makes the material ultimately succeed, though, looking like she’s thoroughly enjoying herself in a relatively breezy comedy, much like she had tried to do in that other raunchy Seth’s film, A Million Ways to Die in the West, except with better material and a more in-tune comedian to bounce off of than MacFarlane.
If you’re wondering about the politics of the movie, it is satirical in that it pokes fun at certain aspects of the White House and the media (especially in its cartoonish portrayal of a slightly more extreme version of a certain popular right-leaning news channel) without in a way that is relevant to what’s going on today without getting too specific. It does have a view from the left side of the political spectrum, but it does manage to temper that outlook with a voice from the side of the right that is will likely resonate for those who have come to think that our political thought is too entrenched to find common ground.
Romantic comedies have been relatively fewer and farther between in the theaters these days, as much of the audience has taken to television movies and serials for their fix, but Long Shot is one of the rare ones worth going out of your way to see in this time of year when blockbuster. It’s smart, it’s funny, and even with a length encroaching beyond the two-hour mark, its pacing doesn’t encumber the film with prolonged lulls. While a raunchy romantic comedy between a down-and-out Seth Rogen and one of the most powerful, brilliant, sophisticated, and beautiful women in the world would seem like a long shot for a winning rom-com, like the political messaging within the context of the story itself, this one manages to sell to the public in a way that can’t be denied.
Qwipster’s rating: A
MPAA Rated: R for strong sexual content, language throughout and some drug use
Running Time: 125 min.
Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O’Shea Jackson Jr., June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Serkis, Alexander Skarsgard
Small role: Randall Park, Lisa Kudrow, Lil Yachty, Boyz II Men
Director: Jonathan Levine
Screenplay: Dan Sterling, Liz Hannah