• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Dec 16, 2015 By Jason Wilson Web Exclusive

Near the beginning of The Emperor’s New Clothes, Russell Brand proclaims that nothing that follows is new information. It is a bold choice, and one that could have derailed the movie. While it is certainly not without its problems, this element of acknowledging information that should be pervasive is one of the film’s strengths because it adds to the urgency of a worldwide problem that no one has seemingly done much about.

The Emperor’s New Clothes is a scathing indictment of the rich. Specifically, Brand targets banks and multi-billion dollar corporations who seemingly stop at nothing to avoid paying taxes. Brand thumps his chest with wit, frustration and bravado in an attempt to spur people into action. Brand uses the backdrop of his hometown, Grays, England, to show how financial distress can impact an area and a people. He uses techniques of visiting a school and asking young children to say whether or not wealth distribution is fair based on a fairly oversimplified example of giving one child more money than the rest. It’s not wrong, necessarily, but it lacks depth.

There is a passion driving Brand and he seems legitimately sickened by the abuses of power permeating through governments and financial institutions. He interviews groups and families about their jobs and their low wages. Seeing the disparity in action is infuriating. The end result, though, would be much better handled as a series instead of a feature clocking in at just under two hours. Brand isn’t even the wrong man for the job. Taking a satirical look at a global plight is a palatable way at tackling a serious issue – just look at how Last Week Tonight champions social causes. These struggling people aren’t ridiculed or made to feel their lives are lesser. Brand is trying to make this issue easier to relate to, and that is where he’s mostly successful.

It is a diatribe, and is part of the Michael Moore school of issue-driven filmmaking. Brand has a stance and he beats his drum loudly and emphatically. This will rub some people the wrong way. But Brand and Winterbottom aren’t hiding their biases. They clearly feel the members of the lower and middle class have been severely exploited for decades and that something has to give. Brand is practically begging people to wake up, remember that this problem didn’t disappear when the Occupy Movement went home, and do something. But the Occupy Movement, like many other topics explored herein, is glossed over unsatisfactorily. By not addressing any specific topic with enough detail, the entire film suffers. It doesn’t work as a feature as it’s constructed. They try to do too much and, unfortunately, do too little instead.

www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-emperors-new-clothes

Author rating: 5.5/10