Political satire overflows with cynicism
Our Brand Is Crisis is an acidic, biting political satire asserting the notion that marketing has taken over the democratic process.
Truth is found in the thesis, especially because the film is based on a documentary that captured the machinations of American political and branding consultants for hire during a 2002 election in Bolivia.
For director David Gordon Green, the film represents a step in a new, more sophisticated direction; and, for producers Grant Heslov and George Clooney, an entry in their stable of slick political romps that are topical, if not contemporary.
“Calamity” Jane (Sandra Bullock) is dragged out of self-imposed retirement by Ben (Anthony Mackie) and Nell (Ann Dowd), political operatives seeking a scapegoat as much as they are a ringer.
They’ve secured a contract with a presidential candidate, Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), in Bolivia and are heading for parts south with a team including branding guru Buckley (Scoot McNairy). What actually gets Jane on the plane to Bolivia is the chance to square off with her longtime sworn nemesis, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), who has been enlisted by the competition.
Jane is a perfect role for Bullock’s everywoman persona. She plays her as a bit of an idiot savant: rumpled, constantly clutching a halfeaten bag of salty snacks, outfitted in her ever-present trench coat and glasses.
She spouts Sun Tzu and Machiavelli quotes at random, but she is cleareyed and not sycophantic, allowing her to see through the mess of Castillo’s campaign.
She claims the nebulous threat of “crisis” as their brand, and the tide starts to turn. When she launches allout war on their competition, it’s personal more than anything else; she just wants to beat Pat Candy.
The team, and the film, harbors no starry-eyed belief in Castillo as a candidate. He is basically the Donald Trump of Bolivia, a billionaire who has been president before.
The people think he will go running right to the International Monetary Fund and plunge their country into a pit of globalized debt. He just might, but that isn’t the concern of his campaign team.
Directed by David Gordon Green.
R (for language, including sexual references)
1:48
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For Jane, it’s a blood feud played out upon a national landscape that won’t have any effect on her real life.
Jane is a genius, but she is deeply flawed and complicated, struggling with substance abuse, mental illness, her own past regrets. That dark underbelly adds depth and dimension to the ironic humor of Our Brand Is Crisis.
The film is deeply cynical, and there’s a fearlessness in such cynicism. This is undermined in the eleventh hour by an implausible change of heart that seems tacked on to please focus groups and give the film a Hollywood ending.
Although Jane gets the hero’s redemption, she is far more interesting when not being a hero.