theRetiree Review of Our Brand Is Crisis

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015)

The Only One in the Movie With Principles

[6/10 · 12 November 2015]

There are two kinds of folks in electoral politics: hired guns and idealists, and two kinds of candidates: those who take advice and those who don't. But before you sneer at the candidates, ask yourself how many tens of thousands or millions of people ever voted for you? And who's the better person, the hired gun with his stupid tricks, or the Candidate who puts himself out there in the face of humiliation and possible ruin? Billy Bob and Sandra are of course as wonderful as ever, but the real sleeper in the movie is the doltish pliable candidate who only has one flash of showing his true character: when he dons his leather jacket and "reasons down" the angry mob. That's called a hint, folks, as to who turns out in the end to be the real leader. The naïve kid turns up in every movie, but as we see in the end, he hasn't really thought through what his Guy is going to have to do to save his country. Don't know how it turned out in real life, but to put this in European terms, he turns out to be more like Angela Merkel than some Greek demagogue. Love it or hate it, and love or hate the IMF and its 18% interest rates, this movie has shades of meaning, and to me, irony, that Sandra Bullock and George Clooney probably didn't intend. Sometimes the leader of principle and character will be the guy who makes you eat your carrots--after he gets elected.