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United Kingdom 2015
Directed by
Michael Winterbottom
101 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Chris Thompson
2.5 stars

Emperor's New Clothes. The

Synopsis:  British comedian and activist Russell Brand joins forces with Michael Winterbottom for a documentary that looks at the absence of consequences for those who created the global financial crisis and the gross economic inequality that allows the richest 80 people in the world to own as much as the poorest 3.5 billion.  

Whether you like or loathe Russell Brand (I like him!) you can’t deny that he offsets his uneven feature film career with a strong sense of social responsibility through his outspoken activism, his writing and his mouthy television shows like Brand X. So it was with some sense of hope and expectation that I went to the screening of this film, keen to see Brand’s take on the current global state of financial affairs.  To my dismay, this well intentioned and overly well informed documentary misses its opportunity to cut through the white noise and say something important by saying too much. To the film’s credit, it sets its target very squarely on the number of ways in which 1% of the population continue to be advantaged to the detriment of the other 99% and it is relentless in the examples it cites in order to make its point. And that’s its problem; there’s just too much information. We are bombarded by numbers and statistics and equivalencies to the point where it all becomes a blur. And the abundance of information isn’t helped by Brand’s straight-down-the-barrel mode of delivery.  It’s like a lecture on speed and after the initial impact has impressed us, the style quickly outlives its welcome.

It’s surprising, in a way, because aside from his more humorous work with Steve Coogan, like Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)  or the various incarnations of The Trip (2010), Winterbottom has a pretty good track record with political or socially conscious films such as Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) or the docudrama The Road to Guantanamo (2006). But here, good intentions are not enough to engage the audience.

There are stronger moments, of course, like the stunt of hiring a big billboard with the faces of CEO’s from financial institutions that not only got off scot-free from their illegal activities, but were bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of several billions or the decision to clamber over a high security gate outside the Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere’s London mansion to question him about how he can live in this house and still avoid paying tax by claiming he lives offshore. But even these moments fall short of classic stunts of the kind Mike Moore is renowned for pulling in films like Bowling for Columbine (2002).

There are also times when the manipulative strategies are just way too transparent to really reach us. Demonstrating the inequity of the 1% over the 99% by using 100 primary school children wearing fake gold bars is a cute idea, but the pantomime style of Brand calling out Is that fair? and them all, replying by rote No! just feels  too easy.

In the end, a simpler more focused message might have had more impact than trying to tackle the GFC, corporate tax avoidance, privatisation, offshore outsourcing and a host of other contemporary economic evils all in one hit. As it stands, we come away knowing that Brand, who more than once counts himself amongst those filthy rich bastards he’s talking about, is genuine in his attempt to redress the imbalance, but he spends so much time shouting at us about what’s wrong with the world that by the time he gets around to what little the film has to offer by way of solutions, we’re too overwhelmed to take in anything more.

 

 

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