Is Robin Williams the worst movie boss in Hollywood?
(Image source: Far Out / Universal Pictures)
Thanks to the wide range of films spanning countless genres across a number of decades that have required an appearance by the President of the United States, there are a huge number of actors who have stood in the Oval Office and dictated the nation’s future. Robin Williams is just one of many, but he was a million miles away from being the best.
There’s certainly a contradiction between playing the president on screen and going down in history as one of its most memorable characters, especially when politically-leaning storytelling is so ubiquitous. Everyone remembers Bill Pullman’s rousing speech from… independence dayHarrison Ford tells the terrorists to get off his plane Air Force Oneand Terry Crews’ Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew’s Herbert Camacho from FoolishnessNone of these three films come close to being dramatic.
Having an ill-equipped outsider wind up stuck in the highest office in the land has been a regular comedic trope that filmmakers return to because it presents the perfect opportunity to subvert the political landscape while also allowing for commentary on their current state of affairs. in power. But rarely has it been as sweet and forgettable as it was when Williams was headlining Barry Levinson Man of the year.
On paper, an Oscar-winning director scripting and directing a satirical comedy with one of the industry’s most beloved stars front and center is a smash hit. And it was just that. Levinson originally wanted Howard Stern in the lead role, and he’s not even an actor, which says a lot about how low the bar is.
Williams Tim Dobbs is a political talk show host who jokingly decides to run for president after declaring to his viewers that he could do a much better job than the current incumbent. From there, he mounts a grassroots campaign knowing full well that he has no chance of winning the election until a computer glitch ends up giving him the highest office in the entire land.
There are modest attempts to try and highlight the corruption, duplicity and overall thirst for power that constantly haunt the upper echelons of the political sphere, but it’s all a bit contradictory. Williams Dobbs doesn’t really want the job. However, as he gets it, he becomes increasingly convinced that he might actually be able to get a good grip on it before finally deciding that the truth must prevail and the whistle must be blown.
It tries to be a message film with a weak message, and makes half-hearted attempts to let Williams off the ground before putting him back in the box of his own flimsy narrative, wasting it on a scrawny protagonist who revels in startling simplicity. The “does it for a joke, does he do it for real, cops for his sins, becomes more popular as a result” arc into which comedy and drama alike fell. Man of the year It boasts nothing – no scenes, no sound clips, no performances – that sticks in the memory after the credits roll.
In terms of what they did in office, there are fantasy presidents who have done worse than Dubbs. However, because Man of the year It’s written and directed by an Oscar winner, directed by an Oscar winner, packs a supporting cast that includes Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Linney, and the potential-to-execution ratio is way off the mark for Williams. A pretty strong claim to being the saddest Commander-in-Chief ever portrayed in a major feature.
