What do you do when you are forced into inactivity by shoulder surgery? Watch movies. I did. A stack of them. “Man of the Year” is a collaboration by Barry Levinson and Robin Williams about a Jon Stewart like character who decides to run for President as an independent.
This movie required more suspension of disbelief than I could summon. It was like trying to drive a manual transmission car where the clutch requires several tons of pressure and your best hope is to manipulate the throttle and hope the synchronizers hold because the clutch is no help at all. Along with watching movies, I watch the entire series of “West Wing” and the sixth and seventh seasons give the nitty gritty of a presidential campaign. This movie expected us to believe that someone could get into the presidential debates in the way shown in this movie. Dumb.
The movie is presented as a fable. Maybe that worked on paper, but it doesn’t work on celluloid. Fables start with, “Once upon a time…” So let’s try this. “Once upon a time, last year, a comedian with a cable TV show ran for President.” Yeah, some fable.
There is a sub-plot about voting machines that was written by someone who is mystified by technology. The author of that sub-plot is more concerned with the artifice of society than the structure. I hope they write with a pencil, because the sub-plot was dumb.
In the end, order is restored and all is mostly well, which is to say that the status quo is only slightly listing.