Man of the Year (2006)
Man of the Year is a Barry Levinson written and directed film about a wildfire comedian TV show host with political opinions who somehow gets into position to be a front runner in the Presidential election. Robin Williams, in splendid form (RIP Robin, still missed) plays Tom Dobbs, who accidentally ends up with a lot of support to run as an independent. Christopher Walken is his opportunistic manager and Laura Linney a lynchpin to the story and love interest.
Hahahaha you’re funny, you have opinions, you should run the country! It’s more palatable when it’s a well meaning, honest and decent man (who happens to be Robin Williams), but transfer that to Donald pissing Trump and it is the same scenario- to the point of life imitating art.
It’s as if the Trump team saw Man of the Year and suddenly knew their angle. I say Trump team because Trump isn’t smart enough to peel a potato, let alone read between the lines or concentrate for an hour and fifty five minutes. Trump’s trajectory from “oh he’s funny” (he isn’t and never was) TV persona to pitchfork wielding orange harbinger of doom is like David Icke rewrote Man of the Year. Still, there’s hundreds of millions of Americans, statistically some* of them are going to be xenophobic idiots easily swayed by conspiracy theories and loud noises)
In short, it’s terrifying how close to the bone this film, released in 2006, is today. What is great about Man of the Year, though, is that it has a soul- yes, unlike Trump, who was actually reverse engineered from one of Hitler’s barbiturate sharts. Oh, and I don’t know if I mentioned, but it has Robin Williams in, who if you don’t like you may as well drown puppies**, punch old ladies and tell me sparkling water is like drinking TV static. No, it isn’t, it’s refreshing- like a shower in my mouth.
Bloody council pop drinking, Trump voting plebs.
Ahem.
Bedsit it?
Man of the Year doesn’t keep the funny up for it’s full length, certainly not with as much vigour as in its early minutes, but that’s true of many films. Good Morning, Vietnam, also a Levinson/Williams collaboration, also let up on the jokes when the more serious parts of the story need tying up. A very well made, funny film which is an easy watch and somewhat prophetic. 7/10 Oh and also Donald Trump is a charmless, putrid shouting carrot out of one of those odd boxes, where all the vegetables look like knobbly cocks so the supermarkets rejected them.
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