Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron.
I cannot stomach another one of these male-fantasy rom-coms about a useless doofus dude pursuing a brilliant and accomplished absolute goddess because he is an idiot but also arrogantly deluded enough to think he has a chance with her ... and then getting rewarded by the movie by actually ending up with her.
Despite how the film has been marketed. that’s not what Long Shot is. The movie posters really play up the impression that this is going to be yet another celebration of what may be the ultimate boy-movie daydream: That seriously, Jobless Guy Wearing No Pants, there isn’t a woman alive who is out of your league.
Long Shot is more like House of Cards if it were less horrific, waaay more funny, and genuinely sweetly sexy. This is, astonishingly, a politics-meets–pop culture satire about an honest, dedicated, principled journalist, Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) — who isn’t anything like a doofus but probably could use some Queer Eye help with his dress sense — who reconnects with his one-time teenaged babysitter and first crush, Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron). This is propitious for both of them, because he has just quit his job with a progressive newspaper in protest over its being bought out by a Rupert Murdoch-esque right-wing billionaire troll, and she needs to hire a new speechwriter as she attempts to move up from her current job as the U.S. Secretary of State to the big chair in the Oval Office. And she’s so everything enough — intelligent, diplomatic, poised, savvy, ambitious, forward-thinking — that she might actually be able to achieve that.
Fred and Charlotte embark on a tentative workplace romance, but that isn’t anywhere near as unlikely as it may appear, because they are both authentically smart and cool. They have palpable chemistry. They have a lot in common, such as their past as kids together, and also wanting to save the world from our terrible leaders. There is definitely fantasy afoot here, but it’s political and cultural, not sexual or romantic. The idea that people like Charlotte and Fred, liberal and open-minded and trying to make the world better for everyone, might succeed in getting the power they need to enact their ideals makes this truly a romantic comedy for our horrible times, when mere hope itself feels like a pipe dream.
But there’s a level of culture jamming going on in Long Shot, too, certainly in the delicious bait-and-switch that will, we can hope, sucker in some stoner dudebros and then, perhaps, slightly engage their interest in global politics. Director Jonathan Levine has actually even done this before, with his surprisingly humane Christmas Eve dudebro bash, The Night Before, and compassionate dudebro-got-cancer dramedy 50/50.
Also Long Shot is just plain funny, in a way that is rare. I don’t often laugh out loud at the movies, frequently because what passes for “hilarious” onscreen, certainly in Hollywood comedies, is more about indignity and embarrassment than anything else. But it’s possible to be kind and empathetic and also amusing, and Long Shot gets that. As a remarkable bonus, this movie features perhaps the funniest, most human sex scene ever. Nothing about it is mean-spirited or about humiliating anyone or shaming them for being interested in sex or wanting to have sex. It’s a little microcosm for the movie overall: finding gentleness and companionship in like-minded friends. Isn’t this just the most wonderfully ridiculous thing ever?
The political stuff in Long Shot is legitimately and reasonably angry, but the intimate respite that Charlotte and Fred find from it is just plain lovely. We should all be so lucky.
