Bad Senator

It seems harsh that Richard Van Sutton, the (fictional) star of Bad Senator would be deemed

as such when his fellow senate members are taking bribes or supporting insurrections. His

worst sin is seemingly being a bad dad, politics don’t really come into this heartfelt but

overlong feature.

Van Sutton (Bob Gallagher) is the aforementioned senator – retired and spending his days

on the golf course with friend/rival/Jurgen Klopp-lookalike Jocko Stone (Rob Moore).

Estranged from his daughter Eliana (Kaylee Amante), his carefree but careless life is turned

upside down by the arrival of Iris (Vanessa Neff), a yogi youtuber whose presence sits at

odds with his conservative tendencies. A shared love of music might be a way to a family

reunion, but Van Sutton needs to learn to put aside his ego first.

Don’t go into Bad Senator expecting politics. A strange thing to say given its title, but this film

is decidedly un-political. ‘Bad Dad’ would have been more appropriate, as the heart of the

film is protagonist Richard Van Sutton’s journey to put selfishness aside and learn how to be

there for his loved ones. It’s a curious choice to frame the film’s name around his rather

important job when it really doesn’t play much of a role in the driving of the plot – and feels

like a bit of a disconnect from the story of that director Chad W Richardson really wants to

tell.

The film is packed with heart and sweetness, and Richardson knows how to embody his

characters with emotion and depth. Van Sutton’s aloofness comes through loud and clear

thanks to Bob Gallagher’s humorous but weighted performance, and the collapse of his

family dynamic is understandable – though the extent of his failures probably would’ve

benefitted from an expansion on his neglect. A pivotal scene involves daughter Eliana

casting him out of a performance of hers due to him arrogantly taking over the stage. Yet it is

previously established that it is his negligence, not his scene-stealing, that is the real issue in

their relationship. The same scene involves her partner Billy (Hunter Johl) saving the day

and winning her back by playing guitar – which seems like a pittance gesture seeing as how

he nearly got their son run over by a train just a few scenes earlier (yes, really).

At over 2 hours, there is also simply not enough sustenance from the plot to justify the

running time. Kaylee Amante can certainly sing, but the film really doesn’t require multiple

musical performances. Rob Moore’s Jocko Stone is a great comedic presence and an

effective foil to Van Sutton, but his scenes are largely comedic filler – Richardson at times

seemingly torn between who his protagonist is. A much trimmer and focused film would’ve

formed a much stronger emotional bond, whereas the number of distractions mean the

grasp of Van Sutton’s development is lost on the audience.

Bad Senator has a strong, simple core idea of a broken family on the path to redemption,

and Chad Richardson’s film punctuate this with some solid humour and moments of

emotional melodrama. But fundamentally it is way too long, with too many distractions and

the desperate need of an edit. Whilst the world seems overly and permanently political at the

moment, it is also a strange title for a film in which one of America’s most important jobs

barely features in the narrative. If this film were a senator, it wouldn’t be a bad one. But it

would certainly have filibustered once or twice.