{"id":4140,"date":"2015-10-30T07:14:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T14:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2015-10-30T07:14:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T14:14:27","slug":"review-our-brand-is-crisis-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4140","title":{"rendered":"Review: OUR BRAND IS CRISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>\u201cYou never let a serious crisis go to waste.\u201d\u00a0 Even though others have been cited as originating this disturbing maxim, this quote is often attributed to Rahm Emanuel, present Chicago mayor and President Barack Obama\u2019s former White House chief of staff. Crisis can certainly present itself with a political opportunity, but using it as a brand for a candidate may make for a one trick pony.<\/p>\n

Based on the 2005 documentary of the same name by filmmaker Rachel Boynton, \u201cOur Brand is Crisis\u201d takes real world events and injects a bit of fiction.\u00a0 The story centers on Jane (Sandra Bullock) a political strategist notable for her losses as much as for her victories.\u00a0 She wears the mantle of \u201cCalamity Jane\u201d well, but when we first meet her, she\u2019s withdrawn from politics in favor of a potter\u2019s wheel.\u00a0 But when she\u2019s visited by a team desperate for new thinking on a Bolivian presidential campaign, Jane, clay pot in hand, returns again to bring the chaos.<\/p>\n

Driving Jane\u2019s comeback is a personal vendetta against a fellow political strategist Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton).\u00a0 She is driven to beat him, even if that is no good for Bolivia.\u00a0 Candy is a slick operator who is comfortably leading the run for the most popular candidate.\u00a0 And his motives also seem a bit personal\u2014Candy just can\u2019t help himself around Jane, but the attraction is one way.<\/p>\n

Jane initially is a mess, which appears to be part of her unconventional style.\u00a0 She\u2019s well read and when the mood strikes her, she often quotes famous people, whether or not such quotes are in context.\u00a0 But there is a vacancy to Jane\u2014she\u2019s just missing depth.\u00a0 And her candidate, Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), is a rich former president, whose reasons for running are about as deep as Jane\u2019s walking encyclopedia of quotations.\u00a0 Castillo is lagging badly in the polls.\u00a0 It will be up to Jane to find a purpose for his campaign and direct it upward.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Brand is Crisis\u201d has fun with the application of American political campaign techniques in a foreign setting.\u00a0 The trailer may have already spoiled many of the film\u2019s best laughs, especially one involving a llama and the language barrier.\u00a0 These jokes still work within the context of the film as a whole, but there are few others.\u00a0 \u201cCrisis\u201d is a political dramatic comedy with elements of all three, but lacking any one in sufficient abundance.<\/p>\n

Bullock is fine in the lead, however, she just does not look haggard enough. Maybe it\u2019s just impossible to make her look bad, but I think more time could have been taken making her look really rough.\u00a0 In one scene she is arrested and spends time in a Bolivian jail cell.\u00a0 This does little to dim her movie star appearance.<\/p>\n

Billy Bob Thornton plays Candy in familiar fashion, channeling his inner James Carville.\u00a0 He\u2019s snarky and exquisitely prickly, however, we\u2019ve seen him in better movies doing the same thing (see 1998\u2019s \u201cPrimary Colors\u201d).\u00a0 And every time \u201cCrisis\u201d might be getting dramatic or deeper, Thornton shows up as a twisted form of comic relief.\u00a0 This telegraphed bit of typecasting is counterproductive, even though Thornton is entertaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Brand is Crisis\u201d isn\u2019t a bad film. Director David Gordon Green delivers a expertly shot (on 35mm film), well-crafted movie if not a completely satisfying one.\u00a0 The screenplay from Oscar nominated writer Peter Straughan (writer of last year\u2019s marvelous \u201cFrank\u201d) just isn\u2019t dark enough and lacks the bite that would drive home the theme more powerfully.\u00a0 Like Jane\u2019s penchant for spitting out quotes of others, \u201cOur Brand is Crisis\u201d is heavy on platitudes but light on profundity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Bullock vs. Thornton in a political showdown in Bolivia. Read Jonathan’s review…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4141,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}