Swing State

The ignorant, small-minded bigot who wrote this movie should know that it is his disgraceful, mocking tone and his peers incessant bashing of the rest of America that helped swing the election, bravo. I have been voting since 1960 and have seen many elections unfold. This kind of pretentious liberal drivel is hateful. I went to DC to protest this week and am quite certain the writer of this shameful film, the director and the actors were doing nothing but whining in their Hollywood mansions. You are the problem. This film is an embarrassment to real liberal Americans. I hope you reconsider your cheap shots and low level humor and make a movie of substance that does not denigrate others. Congratulations on making one of the worst political films that this country has seen.

I rented this movie after seeing an interview with the writer/director Jonathan Sheldon. There were two red flags during the interview and I should have heeded the warnings. The first is that Sheldon is painfully inarticulate. He repeatedly referred to things as "Molotov Cocktail-like". I did not hold this against him until I saw the movie and realized that inarticulate did in fact translate to an unintelligent and terribly crafted script. Secondly, in the interview, Sheldon had the audacity to compare his film to Tootsie. I'm an old guy, so I got the reference, but for the younger crowd, Tootsie is probably considered one of the top fifty comedies of all time. For Sheldon to compare his ridiculous, poorly acted, poorly directed film to one of the best movies of all time is insulting to cinephiles, writers, directors, actors and those who are intelligent. Swing State might make a top fifty list, but it is more likely the top fifty worst political comedies of all time. I urge you not to spend money renting this movie. It is insulting in every regard.

Back as a lad I remember on the old Tonight Show that Jack Paar hosted he used to have Cliff Arquette but as the character he created as Charley Weaver from Mount Idy. Fictional name, fictional town, but you never saw Arquette out of character. His little small town homilies were filled with wit if you read between the lines he had some devastating humor. There's a bunch of Arquettes acting today and they are his descendants.

Charlie was a lot funnier than this film Swing State who has quirky disc jockey Alex Beh create this fictitious radio guest who is supposed to be a satire on Rush Limbaugh types. The idea was great, but the execution falls flat as the Trump electorate feels they've found a John the Baptist type crying in their wilderness. Also a whole lot like Meet John Doe where Barbara Stanwyck and James Gleason create a fictional John Doe and then have to find someone to give him flesh and bones.

Frank Capra's film was a whole lot more serious than Swing State, still it had its funny moments.

Beh had a good idea, but it just doesn't gel.

My buddies and I read a review of this in our college newspaper. We are in our late 20s and in grad school and 3 out of 4 of us thought this movie was one of the worst we have seen and 1 person just thought it was eh. We study political science and film and find this movie to have no merit as a political piece or as a work of art. The humor is corny and played, the story hackneyed and the acting canned. The director really relished in instructing his cast to be over the top and it did not work. Alex Beh was particularly terrible but all of the acting was disappointing. There was something really off about the sound and the music and it was a distraction. I can't say I am disappointed in the movie but I am definitely disappointed in my college newspaper for encouraging me to rent this film. Usually movies that are direct VOD are direct VOD for a reason.

I saw this at a small film festival. It was a real disappointment as a movie. It is not funny. I think that is the biggest problem. It was written for a viewer who does not read or think about issues deeply. The writing of the movie was so bad that even talented actors could not save this film. The directing was very off too. I think this film was done in a hurry by someone who is not a writer, someone who is not a director and a group of actors who used to be famous and now must be desperate for parts. This disaster of a movie has no other explanation. I probably won't go back to the film festival either since the quality of the films was really bad this year. This was the worst of the bunch.