Long Shot Kicked the Bucket?

I had great trepidation about watching Long Shot (2019), wherein klutzy shlub Seth Rogen successfully woos gorgeous, smart and talented Charlize Theron. What, Rogen winning over someone totally out of his league? That would never happen! Weirdly, I kind of liked it.

Theron is Secretary of State to President Bob Odenkirk, a TV star who played the president in a West Wing type show, then won the election. Basically, a Democratic Trump. He wants to cross over to movies, and will not be running for a second term, and plans to endorse Theron. Since she is idealistic and ambitious, she is all for it.

Rogen is an investigative journalist, known for going to extremes to get a story. He is first shown going undercover with some Nazis, and jumps out a second story window when he is recognized. So his attributes are a fearless devotion to truth and justice, and a rubbery ability to take a fall.

When his paper is taken over by a Murdoch type, he quits and finds himself out of work. His college buddy O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) takes him to a charity party to cheer him up. There he meets Theron - it turns out that she used to babysit him, and he had a big crush on her. She kind of likes him, and when she finds out that he is unemployed, offers him a job as speechwriter. 

So we have a talented idealistic woman who might have to compromise her idealism to get into a position of power, where she can do some good. And a somewhat unattractive man-boy who encourages to follow her heart and reject those compromises. And it works! You can almost believe she falls in love with him. First of all, he really isn’t that bad looking - once you get him out of the hideous 80s clothes he wear at all times. Second, Theron is played as pretty deep and thoughtful - someone who might not care about someone’s looks, and see what’s in their heart.

Also, he fell down a flight of stairs, landed on his face and got up again, in front of her. True story: I did this in front of Ms. Spenser before we were dating, and that’s one of the reasons she fell in love with me. Except in my case, it was because my pants fell down around my ankles, so I landed with my bare butt in the air.

In conclusion, when Theron needs to cut loose, she gets Rogen to find her some molly, and they go to a night club - and then there’s an international emergency and she has to deal with it while rolling deep. I laughed anyway.