Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) said the new comedy "The Campaign," which opens nationally on Friday, hits uncomfortably close to home in its satire of political campaigns.
"The thing that's not funny is there's an undercurrent of violence that's creeping into our politics, and that's the point they were trying to make," Kucinich told CBS News. "It's a joke, except it's not."
The movie — directed by Jay Roach, who also directed "Game Change," about the 2008 campaign — takes aim at the unexpected influence outside spending groups can have on political campaigns, even in small districts such as the fictional North Carolina one in the movie.
"If this isn't a commercial for public finance and totally abolishing corporate control of the process, I don't know what is," Kucinich said. "The reason that it works is that there's an element of truth to it. Elections are for sale right now, there's no question about it. When certain interests can put tens of millions of dollars, or a hundred million dollars, on a candidate or a cause, it totally distorts the picture. And that's happening right now. And as far as sliming candidates, yeah. Does that happen? You bet it does."
Specifically, the movie parodies Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists expected to spend millions funding Republicans this year. In the movie, Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow play the wealthy "Motch brothers," who find and back Marty Huggins's (Zach Galifianakis) challenge to incumbent Cam Brady (Will Ferrell).
Galifianakis told the press last week that the Koch brothers are "creepy" and what they do is "not freedom," prompting a spokesman for the Koches to fire back. "His comments, which appear to be based on false attacks made by our political opponents, demonstrate a lack of understanding of our longstanding support of individual freedom, freedom of expression and constitutional rights,” spokesman Philip Ellender said.
Kucinich and Edwards both told CBS they enjoyed the movie overall.
"There were parts of it that were really funny and made me laugh out loud, and then there were parts of it that made me cringe because I wondered if people actually think members of Congress are like that," Edwards said.
"At the end, redemption comes by not selling out. I liked that," Kucinich said.
