In Dead Poet's Society, Robin Williams was funny when he broke into what could only be described as his usual self; otherwise, he maintained a serious expression and let solemnity flow forth. Now, with Man of the Year, he has the same trick going for him, but with purpose. He plays a comedian, so we expect the impressions and the toilet humor and the costumes. It's who he is in person and in character, unlike Dead Poet's Society, where some of his impromptu humor feels out of place for an English teacher.
However, the films do share the common ground of being more about serious and sometimes macabre situations over comedy. Man of the Year may have looked rich with jokes and liveliness in the trailers, but none of the comedy really pertains to the plot. Instead, the laughs work on the level they are presented to us: Stand-up comedy routines. Outside of this, there are too few examples of irony or situational humor to make this a comedy; in fact, for the last half hour, there's actually quite an element of suspense.
From chronological clues hidden around the film, the plot unfolds as such: Tom Dobbs, a successful political comedian ala Jon Stewart (who is alluded to several times but never actually appears), decides to run for president in 2004 as a publicity stunt. He shatters debate decorum, refuses to campaign, and ends up winning, or so he thinks. A new computerized voting system, Delacroy, incorrectly calculates Dobbs as the winner, but only Delacroy employee Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) is aware of it. From this point, the movie shifts into a political thriller: Green wants to expose the truth, Delacroy wants to hide it, and Dobbs... well, he's just caught in the middle, looking as though he's unsure of what movie he's stumbled into.
Not surprisingly, the film is stylistically great. Writer/director Barry Levinson has shot the film in such a way that it almost preserves itself. Characters are framed on opposite ends of the shot quite frequently during scenes with rapid dialog to emphasize the distance between them, which will make creating a coherent full-frame DVD difficult at times. Lighting is key as well; evil characters are dimly lit from below while the good guys are shown in the spotlight. There's appropriate pacing, a good soundtrack, decent continuity, et cetera et cetera, but these are the concerns of an undergrad film student; where is the content, the inspiration, the impact?
And what are we left with? Not what we were promised, that's for sure, but the end product is not a disappointment. Inconsistency runs rampant, though, as the film shuffles between comedy and thriller, but there are no new warnings about that. Maybe it's Levinson's way of telling us that we could be worse off with someone like Dobbs in office who never really wanted the job, or maybe he's praising us for not actually electing him. In any case, it's a movie of the entertaining variety. Man, what a year.
However, the films do share the common ground of being more about serious and sometimes macabre situations over comedy. Man of the Year may have looked rich with jokes and liveliness in the trailers, but none of the comedy really pertains to the plot. Instead, the laughs work on the level they are presented to us: Stand-up comedy routines. Outside of this, there are too few examples of irony or situational humor to make this a comedy; in fact, for the last half hour, there's actually quite an element of suspense.
From chronological clues hidden around the film, the plot unfolds as such: Tom Dobbs, a successful political comedian ala Jon Stewart (who is alluded to several times but never actually appears), decides to run for president in 2004 as a publicity stunt. He shatters debate decorum, refuses to campaign, and ends up winning, or so he thinks. A new computerized voting system, Delacroy, incorrectly calculates Dobbs as the winner, but only Delacroy employee Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) is aware of it. From this point, the movie shifts into a political thriller: Green wants to expose the truth, Delacroy wants to hide it, and Dobbs... well, he's just caught in the middle, looking as though he's unsure of what movie he's stumbled into.
Not surprisingly, the film is stylistically great. Writer/director Barry Levinson has shot the film in such a way that it almost preserves itself. Characters are framed on opposite ends of the shot quite frequently during scenes with rapid dialog to emphasize the distance between them, which will make creating a coherent full-frame DVD difficult at times. Lighting is key as well; evil characters are dimly lit from below while the good guys are shown in the spotlight. There's appropriate pacing, a good soundtrack, decent continuity, et cetera et cetera, but these are the concerns of an undergrad film student; where is the content, the inspiration, the impact?
And what are we left with? Not what we were promised, that's for sure, but the end product is not a disappointment. Inconsistency runs rampant, though, as the film shuffles between comedy and thriller, but there are no new warnings about that. Maybe it's Levinson's way of telling us that we could be worse off with someone like Dobbs in office who never really wanted the job, or maybe he's praising us for not actually electing him. In any case, it's a movie of the entertaining variety. Man, what a year.