Send your questions or comments about this or any other spoiler to: THEMOVIESPOILER.com. Since Im reviewing this film for its DVD release, Ive already taken into consideration the opinions of other reviewers. [2/4], Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, would be perfect humanist, socialist, anti-capitalist propaganda except its a bit disjointed Abhorrent at least 61 obscenities rear female nudity when woman on bus moons other bus, crass, grimy and not sure of its own message burdens itself with foul language and sexual allusions, spoiling some pretty great performances from Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton. Before long the SUV comes to a stop in the heavy traffic on the tiny streets. He does exactly that, to Janes delight, when explaining hes not close to his son, but he wishes he was, with tears in his eyes. Jane also has to get Castillo to be totally transparent to her to uncover those skeletons that she might need to deal with, being transparent which he may not be willing to be, not realizing that her own skeletons might pop out to play. A bra is used as a slingshot, and two shirtless men are briefly shown. But it seems as though screenwriter Peter Straughan and director David Gordon Green realized near the end that theyd written a feature-length film celebrating consultants ability to install a lying, oligarchic, IMF-beholden stooge to a South American presidency, and decided they ought to wrap things up more palatably. Bodine and her crew join Candy on the way to the airport. She doesnt believe hell catch her and he expresses disbelief. Janes voice is heard saying, If you dont like the road youre on, start paving a new one.. By what name was Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) officially released in India in English? Billy Bob Thornton employs his well-honed sneering shtick and Sandra Bullock makes the role her own in Our Brand Is Crisis. Heres my idea for a Hollywood ending: People are inspired to seek out Boyntons great documentary, which throws a spotlight on one of Americas least-known but most consequential exports. Maybe its time to put it out to pasture. In its best moments, Our Brand Is Crisis is reminiscent of Wag the Dog; it knows how fucked politics is and acts accordingly. In my review of the documentary, I wrote: The process of framing Goni to look like something he isnt could be the stuff of a rambunctious campaign comedy like Primary Colors or, for that matter, the documentary The War Room And parts of Our Brand Is Crisis are darkly amusing. Principal photography began on September 29, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The reality of U.S. politics is dominated not so much by incompetent leaders as mortals who lack the requisite superpowers needed to steer the ship of state. Jane says the llama cant stand the commercial so badly, he killed himself. All this makes for mid-grade entertainment value, at best. That was almost certainly the final straw. The boys (all adult age) are living alone because their parents have both died. Castillo's bus is stopped by a group of protesters who don't want the International Monetary Fund in Bolivia. Jane says its time to go negative. This is yet another film that could have been PG (maybe PG-13 due to a mooning scene) with a cleaner script. He resides in Atlanta with his wife and their dog Jack. Candy is outside the hotel in his chauffeur-driven SUV and offers Jane, Ben, and Nell a ride to the airport. Castillo says its in the past, and that his wife knows about it, but Jane claims the perception will be that hes an adulterer. When Bullocks passionately advocating goes negative, or Thorntons smirkingly plays Mephistopheles to her from across their hotel balconytheyre close enough to speak to each other directly, but insist on staying on their cell phonesthe movie builds up an infectious energy. 107 minutes Cast Sandra Bullock as 'Calamity' Jane Bodine Anthony Mackie as Ben Billy Bob Thornton as Pat Candy Zoe Kazan as LeBlanc Scoot McNairy as Buckley Ann Dowd as Nell Director David Gordon Green Screenplay Peter Straughan Writer (original documentary) Power? 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. January 14, 2016. His loyalty comes mostly from the fact that Castillo, who was president at the time, took a young Eduardo on his arm during a rally in his town. The story follows a political strategist who's recruited to help the campaign of a Bolivian presidential. Jane says it will be an honor. 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. 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. It needs a strongman who can handle a crisis. 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.. When they get home, his brothers ridicule Eddie for bringing Yankees and trusting them, and for that matter, trusting Castillo. Um, yes. Vanessa Bryant Settles Helicopter-Crash Photo Lawsuit for $28.85 Million. [9] On October 10, Joaquim de Almeida and Zoe Kazan joined the cast, with Almeida playing Castillo, the former president of Bolivia, and Kazan playing a young woman who finds dirt on political candidates. It starts out with big promises and ends up with jackshit happening.". 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? The 2005 Our Brand Is Crisis was the second documentary about Carville's political work, following 1993's The War Room, in addition to Carville's dramatic acting rsum and cable news career.. Shes convinced to step up when she discovers the front-runner has hired consultant Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), her arch-nemesis. You never find out. Maybe, kinda. Castillo wins the vote by a small margin. George Clooney and Grant Heslov produced. When Jane leaves the meeting with LeBlanc, she instead instructs her to dig up dirt on Castillo, their own candidate. Well, this is the rambunctious comedy version of Our Brand Is Crisis, framed by director David Gordon Green and the British writer Peter Straughan not with a dead boy but the personal odyssey of a fictional character. Jane is a broken prizefighter who has been called into the ring for one last round. 2/4[], Our Brand Is Crisis fun until it gets serious For too long, the stakes play second fiddle to the strategists and even the candidates remain too elusive to make the audience care as much as it should. 2023's Most Anticipated Sequels, Prequels, and Spin-offs. The campaign believes Castillo should apologize as soon as possible but Jane disagrees. She is approached by Candy, who tells her hes surprised shes working on an unwinnable campaign. The film is directed by David. Cut back to the interview that opened the film. A llama is shown getting hit by a car. "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. Let me know how that goes. Jane then joins the mass of people who are walking toward the city. It begins poorly, with an odd montage intercut to stagey interview footage in which Bullocks character, Calamity Jane Bodine, formulates an apologia for we-dont-quite-know-what. ***SPOILER*** Castillo wins the election, and immediately breaks all his promises and turns out to be a tyrant. There's only one wrong in this, only one, and that is losing!". Morales government has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality, and presided over one of the worlds fastest-growing economies, right through the crash of 2008. Bodine used to be the best in the game, but an unfortunate series of events during a campaign destroyed her reputation and confidence. [3] The film opened on October 30, 2015, alongside Burnt and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Jane says that Pat Candy is behind the fliers. , No amount of political manoeuvring can fix this film [1/4], An uneven mix of cynical satire and breezy comedy. It already has. 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. She gives him a bottle of Paul Newman Steak Sauce. Nevertheless, his brothers are much more skeptical about Castillo. Our Brand is Crisis was one of these pleasant surprises. Jane highlights something in the book. Her words are intercut with footage of newspaper headlines and, oddly, shots of Bullocks hands molding clay at a pottery wheel. In her eyes, her job is done. Starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton. [6] On September 15, Billy Bob Thornton joined the film,[7] and on September 18, Anthony Mackie joined the cast. Like before, it came from La Paz Grassroots, but this time it really did come from Candy. Some said it was insightful. Our Brand Is Crisis Review: Champions of Cynicism | TIFF 2015. Our Brand is Crisis may be director David Gordon Green's most sterile picture yet, but it's redeemed somewhat by Sandra Bullock's lead performance, as well as a talented ensemble cast . A shame, then, that the movie loses its cynical nerve with an utterly phoney finale that ties itself up in conscientious knots. Now, the film is so heavily fictionalized that it's much more an emotive or thematic . The emotional investment Green wants to make in Jane feels misplaced, especially since he also wants to celebrate moments when she behaves abhorrently. Plot out uproarious long-shot tricks against his opponents that always seem to work out even better than hoped? Well, that would be you and me both before and after. This satire, directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Straughan, suffers from deficits of wit, wisdom, focus, filmmaking expertise and appropriate tone. That kind of consumer response is pretty remarkable, and it also says something about each brand's crisis management strategies. Is it money? ***END SPOILER***. "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,. Yes, this is a movie where a diabolical character is given the surname Candy, and what can you really say? Although Castillos populist opponent doesnt seem to have much integrity (the character does in the documentary), we still know that Castillo has less, that hes a dreadful man. Walking into the room with the campaign team, she gives a fiery and inspirational speech about how important it is to go negative, and that anybody with a problem with that will be given a set of balls. Beyond needing to adjust to her relocation to La Paz however temporary, Jane knows that she has to transform the thinking of the populace to making them want Castillo as their leader as opposed to changing Castillo to something he inherently is not. 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. Bullocks Jane Bodine offers nothing new. As the site's Chief Film Critic, he has authored hundreds of reviews and covered major film festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. 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. They approach each other and she just smiles. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. A young man working on the campaign, Eduardo (Reynaldo Pacheco) comes to the rescue of Castillo and ushers him away. But theres no real fun in determining the extent to which this movie is some sort of a clef expos. He denies being a member of the cult. She tells Castillo and the campaign that this is no longer an election, it is a crisis. [22], Our Brand Is Crisis grossed $7 million in North America and $1.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $8.6 million, against a budget of $28 million. Unfortunately, the quote is actually from Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's minister of propaganda. As one of his first moves as president, Morales unilaterally reversed the terms of Bolivias natural gas contracts with foreign corporations: Instead of the investors getting 82 percent of the profits and the Bolivian state getting 18 percent, it was suddenly the other way around. She finally just decided to get off the carousel. In Bolivia, altitude sickness (at 12 thousand feet, La Paz is the worlds highest capital) and sickness with the candidate nearly drive her away. He overhears him making plans to visit the IMF in New York, and is crestfallen. Oct. 29, 2015. Kristen Bell to Befriend an Unorthodox Rabbi. That is, of course, when you can get her out of 'retirement' and give her a good reason to . It also sets up a Hollywood ending that all but wrecks the movie. When it does, Jane moons the Rivera bus. Our Brand Is Crisis also has deeper themes that punctuate the human cost of winning and what it takes to do just that. There just arent enough cigarettes or bottles of Scotch in the world to give any political consultant the power that we, in our fits of frustration, guiltily wish they had. "[25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Back at the hotel room, Jane is with Eddie and his brothers, ordering room service and still drunk. See list of Relevant Issuesquestions-and-answers. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. The Weeknd responded to a Rolling Stone story claiming the show is a rape fantasy with a clip of his character calling the mag irrelevant. Its only when the camera is on top of him that we see the pool of blood. One woman says he has a weird smile. Its yoked to an impoverished Bolivian teenager who believesdespite the angry effusions of his brother and friends in their hillside slumthat Castillo is sincere in trying to bring about economic equality. The rest of the movie is her telling the story of what happened after her resignation. Does he drink too much? Hollywood loves it some Ragin Cajun, because hes the closest real-life approximation to the magical political consultant of its dreams. 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. It is revealed that she retired after violating election laws. As one of his first actions, he invites the IMF into Bolivia, thereby breaking his promise. Inspired by the 2005 documentary of the . When people say its a communist movie, I think they are hugely misunderstanding the movies point. Sometimes its melodramaticthink the sinister Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Ides of March, or most notably, Kevin Spaceys snaky Frank Underwood, the master strategist and politician bundled into one on House of Cards. But every once in a while, you come across a movie that seems to be driving an evil message all the way through, and then suddenly the ending takes a moral turn and shows that the protagonists were wrong. [4] It was theatrically released by Warner Bros. on October 30, 2015. His name is too long with her so she just calls him Eddie. Illustration by Hudson Christie. "Wake up, this is war. A lethally effective charm delivery system, Sandra Bullock doesn't need to do much to win you over. It's a game that has a real impact on people's lives, but a game nonetheless. Preview", "Star-Driven Casualties 'Our Brand Is Crisis' & 'Burnt' At The B.O. [13] On December 11, 2013, Sandra Bullock was in early talks to star in the film, while Clooney chose not to direct, and his starring in the film was also unconfirmed at that time. In the following months, the team exercises a strategy of "declaring a crisis". From that day on, she says, our brand is crisis.. So those questions remain in the dim and dusty background, behind the quasi-hilarious dirty tricks, the long nights of booze, the almost-condescending interactions with indigenous Bolivians and the rivalrous relationship tinged with both tragedy and Eros between Jane and Thorntons Mephistophelean (and distinctly Carville-like) Pat Candy. The protest is growing in the city. There are also two middle finger displays. 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. Carvilles troops were dispatched to La Paz in 02 to consolidate the great victory of liberalism and democracy as they and their sponsors and benefactors understand those things and to resist the rising tide of Latin American leftism represented in Bolivia by the indigenous political leader Evo Morales, Gonis leading opponent. At an evening event, Castillo is shaking hands with people behind a barrier. 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