Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I

Film Capsules

The Yes Men Fix The World

The smart-assed pranksters behind a series of big-business sabotage stunts return in a satisfying and enormously entertaining sequel, hatching a commendable thesis to carry activist audiences into the era of the conflicted Obama administration. Change is what Americans were promised, and Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno attempt to frame their idea of what the "Yes We Can" slogan could really look like if those powerful suits were pressed to do so.

The film opens with a brief rundown of the previous episode, 2003's hit documentary The Yes Men, which followed the pair convincingly posing as business executives and landing opportunities for subversive and humorous presentations at stuffy conferences and the like. They announce their frustrated comeback as a make-or-break attempt to rid the world of corporate greed and government ignorance once and for all, which results in their riskiest and most widely announced public actions yet.

Pulling together a phony website for Dow Chemicals, Bichlbaum and Bonanno are eventually invited for a BBC World interview who mistake them for company representatives: they take the chance to broadcast a hoax in which billions of dollars are promised to the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (a disaster caused by Union Carbide, purchased by Dow in 2001).

The buzz on the airwaves lasts barely over an hour, but creates a remarkable stock market loss and drives up huge media hostility against the perpetrators. It makes an even greater splash, however, with the people of Bhopal, who seem to champion the stunt for its effort in portraying the compensation they arguably deserve. The real Dow's retraction of the offer indirectly proves the company's refusal to take responsibility for the devastating catastrophe.

The infamous troublemakers utilize this conflict to drive the rest of the film, proceeding with stunts including a fake government dedication to post-Katrina affordable housing in New Orleans and a grotesque Soylent Green-esque energy solution at a Calgary oil conference. The film is threateningly more engaging than Michael Moore's most recent scattered and overconfident Capitalism: A Love Story, and speaks more directly to its activist audience (the last segment sees them join forces with familiar faces like Lili Taylor and Code Pink's Medea Benjamin).

The Yes Men Fix The World faces the same trouble that any documentary edited for short attention spans may, where the duo's journey sees the streamlining of details and unanswered questions for the sake of a supposed adventure. How are people still falling for these brilliant lies despite their notorious behaviour going consistently viral? What criticisms have they faced on their own end of the liberal stick? How effective is such audacious political comedy in changing the minds of these money-grubbing conservative bastards?

With these uncertainties, this style of documentary is now essentially its own well-pronounced genre, and the g-word demands that we accept a particular kind of world carved out from the more complicated one we live in. That being said, the rice-and-beans crowd are guaranteed a treat most delightful in this one.

The Yes Men Fix The World
Fri, Mar 26, Sat, Mar 27, Mon,
Mar 29 (7 pm)
Sun, Mar 28 (9pm)
Written and directed by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno
Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)

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