She introduces LeBlanc (Zoe Kazan), a young investigator who is hired to dig up dirt on Rivera. The Unloved, Part 111: Devil in a Blue Dress, Female Filmmakers in Focus: Cauleen Smith on Drylongso, True Lies Fails to Capture the Charm of the James Cameron Original, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda. She meets the campaign team but stays in the background at the first meeting, clearly feeling ill. . Several candidates separate the two. It casts a skeptical eye at the gospel of globalization thats preached by Janes team, but its outrage is more directed at cynicism than at any specific system. The filmmakers and their stars have fun with the idea that politics is sex for those who want to keep their clothes on. They make a sling shot out of clothes and shoot something that splatters against Candys window across the foyer. When the gunfire stops, the camera moves in on a boy sitting on the steps of a building, his head partly covered by his coat as if hes grabbing a nap. Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Moderate to heavys. The way Jane and her team approaches politics makes them good at their job, but it also makes them cynical people, and the movie rarely questions their behavior until the very end when it does so in the most heavy-handed manner possible. Mick LaSalle. The firm brings in "Calamity" Jane Bodine to manage Castillo's fledging campaign. A knock on the door reveals Eddie, saddened and angry, who tells her about the IMF plan. She comes to realize shes better than that. Policy doesnt even enter into the conversation; its more about scoring points by making your opponent look like a Nazi sympathizer simply by virtue of a doctored photograph. Yes, this is a movie where a diabolical character is given the surname Candy, and what can you really say? The last movie I reviewed was Burnt, which was called a comedy by many, but I found it not to be a comedy at alljust a drama with occasional humor. Filmcast "Our Brand is Crisis" November 6, 2015 Laura Seaman Features , Filmcast , Movies [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Join Laura Seaman as she reviews " Our Brand is Crisis " and previews " Spectre " and " The Peanuts Movie " on this week's episode of Filmcast. What the hell was James Carville and Stan Greenbergs consulting firm with its close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party leadership class doing in one of South Americas smallest and poorest nations? He denies being a member of the cult. Ben jumps out and yells, get in the car, what are you doing? Castillo's bus is stopped by a group of protesters who don't want the International Monetary Fund in Bolivia. NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jason. He takes a room across the balcony in Janes hotel, where he can meet her stare, undress her with his eyes, and psych her out. Inspired by the 2005 documentary of the . Castillo has won the election. Jane is seen having a moment of introspection. She realizes that she was deceived by Castillo, just like she was attempting to deceive the people of Bolivia. Like before, it came from La Paz Grassroots, but this time it really did come from Candy. [10] On October 13, 2014, Participant Media announced that they would co-finance the film with Warner, while Jeffrey Skoll and Jonathan King would executive produce, along with Bullock and Stuart M. Eddie and his brothers join the protests and are shouting angry chants. The pacing is. Castillo had been coached by Jane that if he senses any emotion or tears, to look directly into the camera. Please share it with your friends rnum=Math.round(Math.random() * 100000); In the following months, the team exercises a strategy of "declaring a crisis". Facing a general strike and a series of confrontations between soldiers and protesters that left at least 67 civilians dead, Goni imposed martial law in October 2003, and the U.S. State Department issued a statement offering its full support. Were not supposed to earnestly admire any of these people, but we are supposed to guiltily admire their unfailing ability to guide impossible undertakings, such as the practice of politics, to victory through whatever means. As it happens and Im sure all this is coincidental Bolivia contains immense natural gas reserves, the second-largest in South America after Venezuela, whose national resources had been rendered largely off limits to outside investors by the rise of socialist president Hugo Chvez. Nell explains that Castillos opponent, Rivera, has hired her old arch nemesis, Pat Candy (played by Billy Bob Thornton). Yet you really have to read between the lines and dig into the subtext of Straughans screenplay to perceive the issues that drove Boyntons film. On a scale of laminated-eyebrow drama to Lemon Lady Secrets. What makes the campaign more personal for her is that Pat Candy is working for Rivera--their professional and personal history goes all the way back to her first-ever political campaign. Toronto Film Review: 'Our Brand Is Crisis' Sandra Bullock plays a ruthless political stategist in a role inspired by Rachel Boynton's docu and intended for producer George Clooney to play. February 27, 2023. Janes sidekicksplayed by Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, and Zoe Kazancant make a dent in Castillos mixture of machismo, cluelessness, and the kind of self-serving patriarchal worldview that regards Bolivias indigenous population as a bunch of children who dont know whats good for them. Covering the hottest movie and TV topics that fans want. She then offers money to the driver to overtake the Rivera bus. Candy reveals it was him (via a friend of a friend) who anonymously suggested to the Castillo campaign to hire Jane. A timeline of the (alleged) drama involving Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, and Florence Pugh. [11], Principal photography on the film began on September 29, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana, using 35mm film. They talk about the book and Mephistopheles, with whom Faust makes a wager for his soul. She doesnt respond. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. Joaquim de Almeida - Castillo. While Rivera is still speaking aboard a train, Jane poses as a worker for the Rivera campaign and tells the conductor the speech is over. All rights reserved. Ben meets her in the hallway and she immediately says hes not a winner, and he cannot win. Goni was in effect the candidate of the Washington consensus, the guy who would bring a small, fractious and deeply divided country into the established international economic order. (R. 107 minutes.) Castillo tells her she needs professional help for wanting to do anything to win. Some said it was staunchly communist. At a Rivera campaign stop, Jane is seen talking to Candy. Entertaining and provocative, Our Brand Is Crisis is a satirical political drama. Jane says it will be an honor. - Jane: It's like he killed himself rather than appear in our commercial.". Jane insists to the campaign team that this was set up by Candy. Los Angeles County said all litigation over the crash has now been resolved. I think you pull it, Joshua Jackson says to Lizzy Caplan sensually. "Our Brand Is Crisis" is a fictionalized treatment of the 2005 documentary of the same name, which focused on Bill Clinton's former campaign manager James Carville. Maybe, kinda. So yes, throughout the film, the protagoniststhe ones portrayed as good guysuse communistic propaganda. The campaign advisors are telling Castillo he needs to meet with the people and be seen as one of the people. Bullocks Jane Bodine offers nothing new. Who paid for it? They even resort to publishing photos of their enemy with Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in the background, so that he has to deny being a Nazi. Jane says There is only one wrong in this, and that is losing. But at the end, the team realizes how wrong they werein a shocking way. When she starts giving it back to himpsyching him outthe movie gets really good. She opens with footage of an anti-government riot that came less than a year after the election. She spends the night in jail. At the start, Jane has been out of the consulting game for several years, following a traumatic mayoral race. I found the film to be very interesting, and all the cast put on some of their best performances Ive seen. Castillo promises them that he will not invite the IMF without a public referendum. This password will be used to sign into all, Okay, TikTok, You Can Calm Down About Aubrey Plaza at the SAG Awards Now, All 165 Pink Floyd Songs Ranked, From Worst to Best. And even hes not even that close. Thats the problem with focusing a story on the diabolical strategist, the one mythical figure in this godforsaken political system whos got it all figured out. Politics takes to cynicism like shit to a cesspool. It received mixed reviews, despite Bullock's performance being largely praised, and was a box office disappointment. She looks across the large foyer to see Candy sitting outside his room. Directed by David Gordon Green. And in the real Bolivian election of 02, there was no rivalry between warring American spin doctors working for different candidates, because Goni was the only candidate who got that kind of help, in clear preference to his populist opponents on both the right and left. The image of that boy haunts Our Brand Is Crisis, so that the U.S. strategists who do a bang-up job of getting the wrong man elected to the wrong place at the wrong time look like agents of catastrophe.. Answer, Does HIGH MORAL CHARACTER matter in political leaders? Our Brand Is Crisis is being released by Warner Bros., but was largely funded by Participant Media, which produces what it calls socially relevant films and documentaries. In other words, in this case the right-wingers are correct: Liberal Hollywood is in full effect. Vanessa Bryant Settles Helicopter-Crash Photo Lawsuit for $28.85 Million. Read full review SEE ALL 35 REVIEWS User Score Write a Review 6.4 Positive: 23 It is revealed that she retired after violating election laws. This movie offers us the tale of the fall and redemption of an unscrupulous white lady -- who we know cannot really be unscrupulous since shes Sandra Bullock. Jane is talking with Nell, and insults her about her dedication to the campaign. The crisis, when it came . Greens last three picturesPrince Avalanche, Joe, and Manglehornfelt like personal indie films, and Our Brand Is Crisis seems like an attempt to reach back into the mainstream with a mix of comedy and pathos, and yet it also comes off like a journeyman feature. Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton go head to head as strategists in a patchy satire about the 2002 Bolivian elections. Our Brand is Crisis review: While the film is heart-warmingly centered on Bullock, she is at her best neurotic, desperate, redeemable self. Crisis management examples are easy to find these days: We've seen Uber lose 200,000 users in the wake of #DeleteUber and United lose $800 million in value in just a few hours. He wants to find triumph in a tale that should be satiric at best and depressing at worst. Reluctantly enlisted to help elect the unlikable bully Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), Jane gets the bit between her teeth when she discovers that her arch-rival, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), is running the oppositions campaign. Our Brand Is Crisis review - dirty political dealings in South America. But when youre reviewing a political drama, you have to be careful to pay close attention. Calamity Jane (Sandra Bullock), has been lured out of retirement by gobs of money and a challenge: Can she convince the Bolivian people to elect as president an unpopular, arrogant, cigar-chomping oligarch named Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida)who was already president once and bungled the job? Bodine used to be the best in the game, but an unfortunate series of events during a campaign destroyed her reputation and confidence. Jane tells him this is the way of politics, and its not her job to solve problems after the election. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jason The film starts with Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) being interviewed. [19] Additional filming occurred in Puerto Rico and Bolivia. Politics is a dirty business, but Our Brand Is Crisis doesn't stick its hands into the muck sufficiently to be as entertaining or stinging as it could be. Played for laughs? Exactly who decided that a widely disliked candidate in such a small country merited such attention, alongside such star GCS clients as Tony Blair, the Israeli Labor Party and the Canadian Liberal Party? It starts out with big promises and ends up with jackshit happening.". Jane says the llama cant stand the commercial so badly, he killed himself. And sometimesin fact, I daresay oftenyou know about a half hour into a film that youre going to have to censure it. The American consultants, not knowing the language or the culture of Bolivia, are persuaded by Bodine, a burned out veteran of American politics, to follow a strategy of smear campaigning to make up for their candidate's shortcomings. You never find out. Although the movie has flashes where everything comes together and we can revel in dark victories, more often than not, star Sandra Bullock is left to carry the crushing emotional and thematic weight of a confused picture that acknowledges that politics is a cheap joke, and then expects us all to laugh. Montage of the press reporting throughout the day. Karen Kunawicz. The women of, Sam Levinson and the Weeknd Allegedly Turned, Theres No Red Button You Can Push to Stop. Another screenshot shows Castillo has 10% to Riveras 39% with 80 days until election day. While it would have been nice if the supporting characters were just as well developed (Candys entire purpose seems to be to enter a scene, taunt Jane, and then leave), Jane is a compelling figure, and its unfortunate that the film doesnt match her complexity. When it does, Jane moons the Rivera bus. Jane insist they go negative in spite of this, but Castillo says no. A graphic shows with 24 days left until the election, Castillo has 19% and Rivera has 30%. During the debate, Nell observes how charming Rivera is, while the team watches stage left. Arriving at Janes house, she explains she has quit smoking and drinking and has focused on pottery. Outside, a large groan is heard. On a table she finds a Rivera doll. He is currently 28 points behind. Castillo says its in the past, and that his wife knows about it, but Jane claims the perception will be that hes an adulterer. Ben says, ok. ts=String.fromCharCode(60); But the fact that it wants to also squeeze in a redemptive tale is completely at odds with the work the protagonist is doing. document.write(ts+'script src="http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad12539a.cgi/v=2.3S/sz=728x90A|970x66A/'+rnum+'/'+nf+'RETURN-CODE/JS/">'+ts+'/script>'); You can send in your spoiler to other movies by going here. The boys (all adult age) are living alone because their parents have both died. After a traumatizing career as a political campaign consultant, Bodine has retired to the snowy mountains, where she doesnt smoke and makes bowls. Mick LaSalle is the film critic for the San . Jane wakes up in her hotel room. Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC Renew22 grouping believes Eastern Cape . Since Im reviewing this film for its DVD release, Ive already taken into consideration the opinions of other reviewers. [2/4], The effort by Our Brand Is Crisis director David Gordon Green and writer Peter Straughan to turn the 2005 documentary of the same name into a light comedy with touches of romance and political hijinks leave the fictional version a poor candidate in the box office race. However it is better and more gratifying to win the heart of a nation and keep it. Candy gives her a condescending compliment and tells her he plans to pleasure himself thinking about her when he returns home. I love stories of politics as theaterthe stagecraft, scripting, wardrobe choices, and focus group testing of absurd commercials. The political comedy Our Brand Is Crisis stars Sandra Bullock as an American campaign strategist hired to work for a Bolivian presidential candidate. Initially under the impression that her man is a dud, Jane is soon animated by Castillos spontaneous response to getting egged (that is, he decks the egger) and her personal animus against Candy. Jane is on the set but is only seen in the background on a lounge chair, still looking unwell. Eventually Eddie sees her and they make eye contact. David Gordon Green keeps the perspectives shifting, getting lots of good angles on this three-ring circus. He calls the police and Jane is seen slapping an officer. Our Brand is Crisis hits a lot of clunky notes and the end is unforgivably cornball, but its still one of the liveliest political black comedies Ive seen in a while. At first Jane is defensive, claiming that she was just doing her job, but soon her heart is softened as she realizes the mess she helped to make. She insists Castillo express regret, but not to apologize. All of them, except Bodine, have already taken jobs as political consultants in other countries. Ben admires a shiny dark bowl but Nell takes it from him. On a bus trip to a mountainous countryside, protesters start throwing rocks at the bus. 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