“The Last Republican” arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, and the documentary marks a surprising turn from Steve Pink, co-writer of “High Fidelity” and “Grosse Pointe Blank” and the director of both “Hot Tub Time Machine” movies. The film centers on Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who broke with his party in an effort to hold Donald Trump responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Kinzinger was among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the president for instigating an insurrection, later serving on the Congressional committee to investigate Jan. 6.
Why choose Kinzinger as the subject of this documentary, which sees the right-wing lawmaker open up to a left-wing documentarian? “I’m a comedy director, right?” Pink told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design. “My whole life has been the subversion of expectation and surprise. And Adam was probably engaged in the greatest subversion of expectation in American politics I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s an amazingly courageous thing that he did, even though I don’t agree with anything politically, that anyone could do,” Pink explained. “You sacrifice your career, your social circle. You put your family at risk, because of the death threats that came in. And I thought that was absolutely a story to tell, especially in this moment, this crisis moment in America. Like, he stood up in that moment and said, Let’s stop it.”
When asked about his “swerve” in career choice, Pink joked, “It’s not the first time I’ve been called upon to save America. I mean, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ answers some of the very basic fundamental questions about civilization, I’d say, so I thought it was a continuation of my oeuvre.”
For Kinzinger’s part, he had been approached by “20 or 30 people” about being the subject of a documentary, but it was always about whether or not he’d run again and what that would look like.
“I’m so tired of the horse race of politics anyway,” Kinzinger said. “And even then I knew that I probably wasn’t going to run again. I had been in Congress for 12 years. Obviously, I’m sitting here betraying my party proudly, but I’m betraying my party.”
He appreciated Pink’s take on the material – more about the cost of doing the right thing than the politics of it all. “And as time went on, I found out he directed ‘Hot Tub Time Machine.’ Truly, it’s one of my favorite comedies,” Kinzinger added.
Watch the full video above.
Sharon Waxman also contributed to this report.
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