The Emperor's New clothes (M). Director: Michael Winterbottom. Starring: Russell Brand. 101 minutes
What you make of this documentary will largely depend on what you make of Russell Brand. Few would deny that the comedian and self-styled revolutionary has fire in his belly. It's on full display in his 2014 book Revolution, in the eloquent rants on his topical web series The Trews, in his iconoclastic takedown of fashion giant Hugo Boss during his GQ Men of the Year Awards acceptance speech in 2013.
On the other hand there is a touch of the Bono about Brand. Wealthy and egotistical, it's hard at times not to wonder how much of his invective against 'the one per cent' is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. There is a moment in The Emperor's New Clothes where he backs away from demanding massive taxation of the very wealth. The line is played for laughs, but you have to wonder.
The documentary, directed by prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, is essentially a 100-minute tirade against the bankers who continue to get rich while life for everyday Brits and Americans just gets tougher. Brand draws a poignant distinction between the lives of those who run the banks and those who clean them — they work in the same building, but live in different worlds.
The bankers whom he targets are deserving villains. Brand has done his research; he documents the kind of cash pulled in by those at the top, and compares it to what is earned by the variety of everyday, working class folk he interviews. He wonders why, in the wake of the financial crises suffered in recent years, more bankers have not gone to prison. These are salient questions, and Brand doesn't baulk.
The film highlights Brand's status as a champion of the people, as he wanders the streets of his hometown of Grays, Essex, rubbing shoulders with the locals. He is also a 'sex symbol' and, by the same token, a notorious womaniser, and the film highlights this, to its detriment: there are numerous shots of women making eyes at him, and his interviews with women reveal 'flirt' as one of his default modes.
Brand has set the bar high, but his efforts to pull Michael Moore-style stunts often fall flat. There is a recurring scenario in which he fronts up to a bank, is denied access to the president of said bank, and