User reviews

Steve Coogan in a non comedic role plays a controversial radio host who finds himself having to look after his niece while her mother is in rehab.

The 16 year old niece is clever and sassy ( too much so that it becomes contrived ) but she plays it well.

Radio Host Coogan is nihilistic, emotionally withdrawn but very aware of his role within controversy.

He and the girl get to know each other and bond, he has a semi breakdown live on air as a result of work pressure and possibly the interactions with his niece.

The whole thing is a bit wishy washy at times and then tries to be liberating in other ways.

Its produced well enough and the performances are decent but overall it peters out into a story about an angry man dealing with his issues.

Some of the reviews about it being liberals attacking conservatives isn't true. There are tones of negativity towards the social media and disenfranchised society we live in.

I think the tone of the narrative is with regards to how the media likes to spark controversy for ratings etc and Coogan plays the ringmaster.

Overall an average film that could have gone deeper into its subject matter rather than angry man bonds with family member and finds himself.

5/10

Lionel Macomb (Steve Coogan) is a right wing talk show host on New York radio. His successful firebrand life is turned upside down when his never-known 16 year old niece Tess shows up. Val (Neve Campbell) is his assistant.

The opening premise has an obvious out. He could play up the fact that he's throwing out his niece because it's his dog-eat-dog view of the world. A right wing diatribe about personal self-sufficiency is the perfect way to sell it. I don't think the film understands the real American right wing. Coogan feels more like a British right wing politician or a right wing blowhard from 10 years ago. Of course, there is another way to go with the premise. He could see her as a way to add drama to his show or enter politics or fight his way onto TV. I don't really buy his character to start and that makes it hard to buy the movie. It even has a Tucker Carlson character. Everything is on-the-nose and not-quite-right. The issue is that Trump has made this movie obsolete and lost at sea. It thinks that it has a point but it's adrift.

As for Tess, I wasn't sure where the film was going with her. She is nothing more than an object used to reform a conservative blowhard or at least this imaginary form of a conservative blowhard. It's all very fake like a discussion around a New York dinner party. Tess is not a real character. It's too bad that she's not a real 16 year old. I thought she could be interesting as she scams her way into his apartment. After Lionel takes her in, she no longer has any drama. In addition, Val is a complete blank. She has no distinguishing characteristics other than being Neve Campbell. I don't buy any of these characters and by extension, I don't buy this movie until over an hour into it. Lionel does a diatribe finally worthy of American politics. He finally becomes real but every other character is trying to gaslight me. It's like every character is too dumb to understand real political discourse. That diatribe should be the starting point and the story should be his journey to find hope.

It's not believable and you would need to have Dennis Miller or a person who isn't completely lost when it comes to conservative values to play the part.

The same way Alec Baldwin does a poor Trump. That's my feeling for the lead character and all these conservative characters. Really it's impossible to find these actors in Hollywood bc all the ones that don't carry the flag of hate for the other party are banned.

The themes are stereotypical to the lefts narrative and not nearly realistic. The progressive morons will love it though.

The main character used to do a show in Britain were he was an old radio guy, and it was pretty darn funny. So now I'll watch anything with him in it.

Another show showcasing the holier than thou liberal values. And a protagonist giving lectures on immigration. And was interesting to see a lot of key words used by main stream media to demonize conservatives being used in this show. Will we ever have a show to counter the views of liberals.

The story line is an ancient one, but its a good one. The acting didn't feel like acting, it became an internal of the external. Ends well, and in between throws enough salt around to get in just about every crevice.

With cookie-cutter characters that stumble and trip their way through a cliched plot (tell me if you've heard this one: Smart and spunky teenager shows up on the doorstep of a stuffy conservative family member and makes them look inward for a better way to be), "Hot Air" is not insightful nor is it even that timely.

The characters are not relatable to the point of being reprehensible and feel like they lurch their way along like emotional Frankenstein's monsters in difficult or impossible to believe directions with little tangible and no believable character development. The only character that seems to derive any relatability is the teenage niece, Tess, but even she doesn't demonstrate much depth and can be very irritating. Steve Coogan's long-winded speech near the end seems to come out of nowhere with less provocation than he would have clearly had in the past.

Overall, you'll probably feel the same way if you just walk repeatedly into a closed door for a little while futily hoping to get to the other side, and you won't waste over a 100 minutes doing it.

Hate this movie because it's simply not very good. You'll see a few reviews on here from people who spend their entire lives griping about how Liberals do this and do that.... so they aren't allowed to like this movie - the same way they're not allowed to like late night hosts or Robert De Niro or football. Reviewing a movie based on something as fake as politics is ridiculous. This movie is simply bland and redundant, especially when there are already a bunch of actors doing the same shtick every day: Hannity, Carlson, Limbaugh... there's an endless list. And they don't really break character anymore. It's going nowhere. Don't watch it.

This movie is great. A lot of the reviews so far don't agree with Lionel's views so they give a low rating. If you watch a movie with killing in it do you give it a low rating because you don't agree with killing? No it is a feelgood movie about a radio host who hasn't moved with the times but is strongly influenced by his 16 year old niece he had never met. Recommended.

I gave this film a 7 & that's fair.

This film is a good old-fashioned, feet up, Sunday afternoon popcorn munching watch.

It's sweet.

Everyone involved does their job.

This film deserves better than its current middle of the road rating. I can only imagine it has gathered some negative ratings due to some perceiving this film as having elements that attack the American right? I dunno?

Overall, I think this is a story about human connections & how those genuine connections can have an affect.

If anything, I believe this film highlights the folly of disconnect masquerading as genuine human interaction; regardless of political stance.

Of course everyone is looking for another Alan Partridge character, but Mr Coogan wants to move on, and is trying different rôles and different locations (where better than a spell in New York?).

He has decorated the set with a interesting, challenging young woman (who he knows everyone will sympathise with), and gives one of the best summaries of our current circumstances too.

Absolute drivel from the man who bought us Partridge should be ashamed - don't bother

Coogans American/Irish/British accent isn't so much 'on point' is it is on many points, there to be exact. Each accent he does perfectly but stitched together, like a grandmother whose knit a thousand cardigans, in that the stitching has become loose and I hear three distinct different accents from one actor! This is simple a tour die force performance showing us how multi talented British actors truly are! Apart from that I can always watch Coogan. He's a genius and usually a brilliant actor. This time they really should remaster the show with a.i. To tighten his American (/Irish/English) accent (into just American!).

Taylor Russell couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.

I always enjoy Steve Cohan, but had to switch it off because the girl was cringe worthy.

With 'he' I mean of course Steve Coogan who gave use so many brilliant shows and movies - it is just not worth spending on any more time on this. I gave it a 1 as I am not sure a 0 is accepted.

Take a ridiculous view of a conservative and have it countered by an idealised liberal. Stretch over 90 mins. Et voila

Not sure if it's because I said watching this movie was like if someone "just ****** right in your face."

But honestly that's what it felt like.

Funny because I wrote that review over 2 weeks ago and there aren't any more user reviews than there were when I wrote my review so clearly this movie is not doing so well.

I dunno. Stay away from this movie unless you like your character development to go as follows: Characters are exactly the same at the end of the movie than they are at the beginning, maybe MAYBE having changed less than 1 % of their views.

That's all

Tired of right wing movies like this that push their views on everyone and then in the end make the Right wing extremist out to be the good guy

This is a funny entertaining movie giving it 1 star is ridiculous. Steve Coogan is great. To answer the question above "when will we get our own show?" You have your own shows they just aren't generally good.