Our Brand is Crisis

2015 • 107 minutter

Om denne film

A Bolivian presidential candidate failing badly in the polls enlists the firepower of an elite American management team, led by the deeply damaged but still brilliant strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine (Bullock). In self-imposed retirement following a scandal that earned her nickname and rocked her to her core, Jane is coaxed back into the game for the chance to beat her professional nemesis, the loathsome Pat Candy (Thornton), now coaching the opposition. But as Candy zeroes in on every vulnerability—both on and off the campaign trail—Jane is plunged into a personal crisis as intense as the one her team exploits nationally to boost their numbers. Dramatic, rapid-fire and laced with satire, Our Brand is Crisis reveals the cynical machinations and private battles of world-class political consultants for whom nothing is sacred and winning is all that matters.

Bedømmelser og anmeldelser

This political version of a Monroe Doctrine didn't work for me. I find preposterous the idea that while the American Dream is actually falling apart at the seams, foreign countries would be in dire need of American political strategists to win national elections, in this case in... Bolivia. The second reason is rather trivial, I'll admit, but I was bothered by having to constantly lower the head to hear the political whisperings between actors, while making sure I was not missing the English translations running at the bottom of the screen. And one has to wonder why it was so necessary to situate the action in what is called in the film a "godforsaken town", to recount the story of an American political strategist who wakes up to the troubles she's been causing ordinary voters "by persuading them of something they don't need". The same message, filmed in Wisconsin, would have been as pertinent, if not more, considering the present atmosphere of carnival Republican politics and deteriorating US democracy, as it is being bought by banks and corporations. No need to go to Bolivia if you want to show that voters are getting screwed by political strategists.

I love this movie. I usually avoid movies with low Rotten Tomatoes scores, but I took a risk and saw this in a theater when it was first released. It's more serious and cerebral than Sandra Bullock's other movies, but as a political drama it's quite well done.

I teach marketing and sales and recommended it as extra credit to my students. The principle of this movie is the principle of all marketing campaigns; branding a product/service to meet the psychographic needs of consumers. In this case it's branding a candidate to meet the needs of his constituents. I thought it had good entertainment value as well.