One woman says he has a weird smile. He tells a story about a campaign run by Adlai Stevenson in which Stevenson is told everything thinking person would vote for him, to which Stevenson replies that is not enough. The police arrive and the demonstration quickly turns into a riot. 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. [3], The film opened on October 30, 2015, alongside Burnt and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Inspired by the 2005 documentary of the . Terms of Service apply. It is revealed that she retired after violating election laws. Janes cynicismshe regards herself, the candidate, and everyone else as a pawnis so over-the-top that it threatens to derail Our Brand is Crisis: Who cares about the election if she doesnt? "- Castillo: This llama will lead us toward prosperity. At a large debate with all the candidates, Jane is found behind the stage backdrop during the debate. On a bus trip to a mountainous countryside, protesters start throwing rocks at the bus. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Who paid for it? Jane is so nauseous from her travel and the elevation she leaves and is heard throwing up. "[25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Director David Gordon Green Writers Rachel Boynton (suggested by the documentary) Peter Straughan (screenplay) Stars Sandra Bullock Comedy Drama A battle-hardened American political consultant is sent to help re-elect a controversial president in Bolivia, where she must compete with a long-term rival working for another candidate. It's a case study, if nothing else, of starting with a dubious idea and making it downright awful. The more you understand politics, the more it obliterates idealism and eventually all you see is a rigged game masquerading as a grand-scale optimism. But the fact that it wants to also squeeze in a redemptive tale. Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Moderate to heavys. They plead with him that any negotiations with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) be preceded by a referendum so the people can decide. Back at the hotel room, Jane is with Eddie and his brothers, ordering room service and still drunk. Carville and Greenberg won that election for Goni, after shifting the entire theme of his campaign to the crisis mantra, but maybe they should have vetted their candidate a little better. In the mix is a fine supporting cast including a sensational Thornton . Later Castillo is heard instructing interest rates to be raised to 15%. All the stupid tricks are here, the ones people laugh at onscreen in the context of a film like this but fall for in spite of themselves on their TVs during football games. Jane wakes up in her hotel room. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jason The film starts with Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) being interviewed. February 27, 2023. They are then in a restaurant, the entire campaign team drinking heavily. On a table she finds a Rivera doll. Critic Kenneth Turan has this review. In the following months, the team exercises a strategy of "declaring a crisis". The villagers are angrily blocking the bus, and Castillo, against the wishes of Jane, gets off to talk with them. Eddie replies, what about you? Bodines character loosely channels celebrity political consultant James Carville, one of the Americans who worked on the 2002 Bolivian campaign and a consistent fascination of Hollywood. 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. She describes the Daisy advertisement, which ran exactly once, that turned the election for Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater. I can barely imagine the humiliation! Well, that would be you and me both before and after. He wants to find triumph in a tale that should be satiric at best and depressing at worst. Eduardo, a young volunteer of the Castillo campaign, is deeply impressed by this show of commitment. If youve been following the drama in the House, the inability of most every Republican presidential candidate to lift off, or really any news from American politics over the last 10 or 239 years, you might have noticed that politics is difficult. Throughout almost all of the film, Jane and her team use dirty manipulation to campaign for Castillo. She is approached by Candy, who tells her hes surprised shes working on an unwinnable campaign. Thankfully, were usually too wrapped up in Bullocks great performance to mind the films cognitive dissonance. A young man working on the campaign, Eduardo (Reynaldo Pacheco) comes to the rescue of Castillo and ushers him away. Later shell claim he got the room intentionally to get under her skin. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. Andrew O'Hehir is executive editor of Salon. A screenshot shows Castillo at 8% with Rivera leading with 36%. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. Um, yes. "Wake up, this is war. Afterwards, Jane sends 3 Bolivian singers to show up at Candys door. It also sets up a Hollywood ending that all but wrecks the movie. [23], Eric Kohn from Indiewire wrote that the movie is all about Bullock's performance, saying "she imbues her part with a ferocious energy that constantly elevates the straightforward material". Later at her hotel room, she is still nauseous from the elevation. Old colleague Nell (Ann Dowd) brings young idealistic Ben (Anthony Mackie) up to the woods to coax Jane down to Bolivia, to manage the presidential campaign of a conservative senator whose prior stint as head of that country was pretty authoritarian. Verdict. Send your questions or comments about this or any other spoiler to: THEMOVIESPOILER.com. Jane expresses to Ben that she still gets nauseous whenever she sees Castillo. But if you can be wary of those things, I do recommend this film. The poor reviews of Our Brand is Crisis are puzzling, since its one of the few non-documentary films to show successfully a) what rip-roaring fun politics can be when its only about marketing and b) what terrible things can happen when its only about marketing. He is currently 28 points behind. Instead, both end up outside of their hotel rooms so they can see each other. Who was really paying for their work with Goni, an unpopular former president who had spent much of his life in the United States and spoke Spanish so poorly that Bolivian opponents derided him as El Gringo? By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. Though not without its entertaining momentsthe cast, led by Sandra Bullock, is energetic, sharp and gets a fair number of juicy bits to rock out with. He cant reconcile that her success also makes her a bad person. Jane gets blasted, leaks misinformation, vandalizes Candys room, and sabotages his candidates rallies the way he sabotaged her candidates. 1h 47m. Eventually Eddie sees her and they make eye contact. On a campaign bus heading toward a remote Bolivia location on a small dirt road, they discover Riveras bus is directly ahead of them. Smoke too much? Maybe, kinda. Around the edges of this story about Bullocks character, an especially ruthless consultant known as Calamity Jane, there are a few intriguing hints of other stories about the international financial system, the power of fear in politics and the American understanding of what democracy means when applied to other people in other countries. I think you pull it, Joshua Jackson says to Lizzy Caplan sensually. Since 2013, the study of English and history has dropped by a third; the number of STEM degrees, meanwhile, is soaring. [21] It had a wide release in 2,202 theaters for 21 days. 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. 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. That was almost certainly the final straw. Shes convinced to step up when she discovers the front-runner has hired consultant Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), her arch-nemesis. A timeline of the (alleged) drama involving Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, and Florence Pugh. Since Im reviewing this film for its DVD release, Ive already taken into consideration the opinions of other reviewers. Its nun versus AI in Damon Lindelofs new series. 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. The film, directed by David Gordon Green and based on the 2005 documentary of the same name, follows Bullock's character Jane Bodine, a political mastermind brought in to help a Bolivian. Jane insists to the campaign team that this was set up by Candy. Jane and her team had no idea he would do that. She quotes, It may be alright to have a power that is based on guns. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. That kind of consumer response is pretty remarkable, and it also says something about each brand's crisis management strategies. Read full review SEE ALL 35 REVIEWS User Score Write a Review 6.4 Positive: 23 She offers to reluctantly resign, but Castillo keeps her on. Later, two senior advisors argue the crisis brand may have worked with the current crowd, but it wont with the working class. What sealed the deal was that she will be coming up against her long-time arch-nemesis, Pat Candy. Please share it with your friends rnum=Math.round(Math.random() * 100000); A lethally effective charm delivery system, Sandra Bullock doesn't need to do much to win you over. Bodine had fled the consulting scene for years after an eruption of conscience that pushed her to mental breakdown, sobriety, and pottery. Among the many achievements of HBOs Veep is its discovery of a new, post-Carville political consultant character, one thats just as cuttingly entertaining but truer to reality. Rated R When it does, Jane moons the Rivera bus. 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. 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. ***SPOILER*** Castillo wins the election, and immediately breaks all his promises and turns out to be a tyrant. Instead of superhuman strength or projectile spider-webs, this puppet master has in her arsenal a penchant for drinking and smoking, instant access to the perfect quip at the perfect time, and a convenient lack of morality. Screenwriter Peter Straughans script originally featured a male protagonist, but Bullock makes the role her own, from vomiting into a wastepaper basket and mooning the opposition to shrewdly choreographing an on-air attack of tears for her candidate. Now, the film is so heavily fictionalized that it's much more an emotive or thematic . SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Despite Sandra Bullocks strong lead performance, David Gordon Greens film cant push a hopeful tone past its depressing reality. They plan to frighten the people, with the aim of persuading them to vote for the unsympathetic but known Castillo rather than the younger opposition candidates. But the main mystery to me was the message of this film. Its great fun. From that day on, she says, our brand is crisis.. Jane meets with Castillo who says shes a liability. We know this stuff happens, but its still clarifying to see the curtains pulled back. In case the true story behind the baffling and approximately well-intentioned Sandra Bullock star vehicle Our Brand Is Crisis makes any difference, here it is: Way back in the innocent days of 2002 (Im kidding about innocent), the high-powered political consulting firm Greenberg Carville Shrum parachuted into Bolivia to take up the cause of a struggling presidential candidate named Gonzalo Snchez de Lozada, universally known as Goni. Rachel Boynton, a documentary director whose work focuses on ideology, politics and power (her most recent movie, Big Men, is about the global workings of the oil industry), came along and made an extraordinary film about that campaign, whose title was drawn from a telling phrase coined by one of the GCS consultants. Have they learned nothing? (The daughter killed herself as a result.). , No amount of political manoeuvring can fix this film [1/4], An uneven mix of cynical satire and breezy comedy. She finally just decided to get off the carousel. (Vice) President Selina Meyers (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has a stable of advisers including Dan Egan (Reid Scott) and Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) who have internalized and aspire to the Carville cult; its just that reality interrupts to remind them that things dont work like that. When people say its a communist movie, I think they are hugely misunderstanding the movies point. 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. Nell explains that Castillos opponent, Rivera, has hired her old arch nemesis, Pat Candy (played by Billy Bob Thornton). Castillo immediately punches the man. Bullocks Jane Bodine offers nothing new. 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. 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. Nevertheless, theres not much reason for you to take my word over theirs. The deception disgusts her. 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