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.

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Radio Host Coogan is nihilistic, emotionally withdrawn but very aware of his role within controversy.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

I added this film to my list as an idea because of Steve Coogan, as he is a favourite British comedy actor.

I am interested to look at his film career, especially now he seems to be making some kind of name for himself on the other side of the pond.

In Hot Air Steve Coogan is Lionel Macomb a talk show megalith, a self opinionated self appointed voice of conservative America. For conservative equate neo-fascist, certainly on this left bank of the pond.

Lionel Macomb represents the atypical American republican who love to crow how they won their war against British monarchy, while wishing desperately to emulate them wanting to live like royalty as the kings in their own private and secluded castles.

Americans are not supposed to understand the meaning of irony, yet I find this aspect of Americanism especially ironic. Allegedly Benedict Arnold is one of the most hated of American historical figures because he changed sides in their war of independence, but at at least he was not a hypocrite no he was an honest and not a closet royalist.

Off my soapbox and back to the movie which is Not the Lionel Macomb show, his happiness is spoiled with the arrival of his niece Tess. He is made particularly uncomfortable around her, because he's not used to having his views and opinions questioned let alone challenged. An extra ingredient is that Tess still believes and has faith in her mum, a woman from Lionel Macomb's past that he desperately needs to keep buried there.

Watching this film progress I suspected a subtext and that it may turn out akin to a modern day remake of a Christmas Carol, with Lionel Macomb morphing from Scrooge past into future. And what do you know, was I right in my surmise? He certainly appeared to have at least started on the road, to his own personal Damascus by the end. There's something that a lot of yanks seem keen to cling onto, and that is religious symbolism or humbug.