our brand is crisis ending explainedour brand is crisis ending explained

Jane is a broken prizefighter who has been called into the ring for one last round. The premise doesn't really show up until the end of the movie. Written by Peter Straughan, and according to its credits inspired by the 2005 documentary film of the same name, Our Brand is Crisis uneasily mixes the star vehicle with the screwball-political-comedy/satire with the (half-heartedly, in the end) impassioned call to social consciousness arms. Bodines character loosely channels celebrity political consultant James Carville, one of the Americans who worked on the 2002 Bolivian campaign and a consistent fascination of Hollywood. But it seems as though screenwriter Peter Straughan and director David Gordon Green realized near the end that theyd written a feature-length film celebrating consultants ability to install a lying, oligarchic, IMF-beholden stooge to a South American presidency, and decided they ought to wrap things up more palatably. Our Brand Is Crisis is being released by Warner Bros., but was largely funded by Participant Media, which produces what it calls socially relevant films and documentaries. In other words, in this case the right-wingers are correct: Liberal Hollywood is in full effect. "Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. Janes sidekicksplayed by Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, and Zoe Kazancant make a dent in Castillos mixture of machismo, cluelessness, and the kind of self-serving patriarchal worldview that regards Bolivias indigenous population as a bunch of children who dont know whats good for them. Did Cirie go too far by bringing family matters into the game? Thankfully, were usually too wrapped up in Bullocks great performance to mind the films cognitive dissonance. The deception disgusts her. The cinematic trope has retroactively kept a light on devilish George H.W. I say, beat Candy because Jane doesnt really care that much about Castillo or Bolivia. There are dozens of pottery jars and bowls covering the walls. What sealed the deal was that she will be coming up against her long-time arch-nemesis, Pat Candy. She then offers money to the driver to overtake the Rivera bus. The story follows a political strategist who's recruited to help the campaign of a Bolivian presidential. . 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) is a brilliant strategist, pulse reader and marketing mind. It already has. It received mixed reviews, despite Bullock's performance being largely praised, and was a box office disappointment. She describes the Daisy advertisement, which ran exactly once, that turned the election for Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater. At a large debate with all the candidates, Jane is found behind the stage backdrop during the debate. Our Brand is Crisis hits a lot of clunky notes and the end is unforgivably cornball, but its still one of the liveliest political black comedies Ive seen in a while. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jason The film starts with Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) being interviewed. Once a political idealist, she increasingly was a strategist for hire outwardly not caring about the actual politics of her boss. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. They then shoot the head of the Rivera doll Candy had left, and it breaks his window. Meanwhile, Thornton employs his well-honed smiling/sneering shtick to nicely nasty effect. Another graphic shows the race at 22% for Castillo and 26% for Rivera with 16 days to go. Back at the hotel room, Jane is with Eddie and his brothers, ordering room service and still drunk. Walking into the room with the campaign team, she gives a fiery and inspirational speech about how important it is to go negative, and that anybody with a problem with that will be given a set of balls. Another screenshot shows Castillo has 10% to Riveras 39% with 80 days until election day. Eventually Eddie sees her and they make eye contact. Boynton traveled to Bolivia to cover the activity of a high-priced U.S. consulting firm, Greenberg Carville, and Shrum, in the 2002 presidential race, and she had amazingfrankly, flabbergastingaccess. Bodine had fled the consulting scene for years after an eruption of conscience that pushed her to mental breakdown, sobriety, and pottery. Maybe, kinda. She may get some help in getting into the mindset of that indigenous poor through a campaign volunteer named Eddie, a Castillo loyalist since he was a young boy much to the chagrin of his friends. A bra is used as a slingshot, and two shirtless men are briefly shown. South Africa - DM Listen, 18 Dec Ramaphosa's Renew22 team decides to back Mabuyane over Lamola - When the Renew22 caucus met on Day 3 of the ANC's National Elective Conference, at least 2,400 delegates agreed to support Cyril Ramaphosa's bid for a second term as party president, with Oscar Mabuyane as his second in command. David Gordon Greens uneven Wag the Dog-style satirical political romp takes both its title and theme from Rachel Boyntons 2005 documentary about the role played by the gun-for-hire American consultants in the 2002 Bolivian elections. He calls the police and Jane is seen slapping an officer. When Jane leaves the meeting with LeBlanc, she instead instructs her to dig up dirt on Castillo, their own candidate. Yet you really have to read between the lines and dig into the subtext of Straughans screenplay to perceive the issues that drove Boyntons film. Initially under the impression that her man is a dud, Jane is soon animated by Castillos spontaneous response to getting egged (that is, he decks the egger) and her personal animus against Candy. Jane highlights something in the book. The film, directed by David Gordon Green and based on the 2005 documentary of the same name, follows Bullock's character Jane Bodine, a political mastermind brought in to help a Bolivian. The train begins to leave and Candy is furious. As it happens and Im sure all this is coincidental Bolivia contains immense natural gas reserves, the second-largest in South America after Venezuela, whose national resources had been rendered largely off limits to outside investors by the rise of socialist president Hugo Chvez. The film is directed by David. Meanwhile, the senior advisors (Ben, Nell and others) talk about Jane and Candy, how they had sex previously, and how she spread a rumor during a campaign that Candys candidates daughter was on drugs. The website's critical consensus reads, "Our Brand Is Crisis offers sporadic amusement and benefits from a talented cast, but ultimately lacks enough of a bite to add much of interest to the political satire genre. Not seeing what she highlighted, Candy asks about it. [8] On September 24, Ann Dowd joined the film. An young actress expresses concern with her part in the ad, which requires her to be caught by Castillo. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. LeBlanc discovers Rivera has purchased 27 vehicles with taxpayer money at the cost of about 35-40 vehicles. But at the end, their methods are exposed to the viewers as evil. In its opening weekend, it was projected to make $57 million from 2,202 theaters,[23] however only ended up grossing $3.2 million, finishing eighth at the box office. Before I address the message, Ill review the content. Answer, Does HIGH MORAL CHARACTER matter in political leaders? [6] On September 15, Billy Bob Thornton joined the film,[7] and on September 18, Anthony Mackie joined the cast. Illustration by Hudson Christie. Since The War Room, the omnipotent, omniscient celebrity political consultant has been portrayed again and again. The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. Thats not just naive to the point of idiocy. Oct. 29, 2015. Bullock plays Calamity Jane Bodine, a legendary practitioner of the dark political arts who comes out of semi-retirement to navigate the hapless ex-president back to the top job. Reluctantly enlisted to help elect the unlikable bully Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida), Jane gets the bit between her teeth when she discovers that her arch-rival, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), is running the oppositions campaign. The deeply disappointed Eduardo visits Bodine in her hotel; Bodine replies that she is not responsible for Castillo's actions. Policy doesnt even enter into the conversation; its more about scoring points by making your opponent look like a Nazi sympathizer simply by virtue of a doctored photograph. Jane insists to the campaign team that this was set up by Candy. Janes cynicismshe regards herself, the candidate, and everyone else as a pawnis so over-the-top that it threatens to derail Our Brand is Crisis: Who cares about the election if she doesnt? "Our Brand Is Crisis" is a fictionalized treatment of the 2005 documentary of the same name, which focused on Bill Clinton's former campaign manager James Carville. - Jane: It's like he killed himself rather than appear in our commercial.". In the mix is a fine supporting cast including a sensational Thornton . (Vice) President Selina Meyers (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has a stable of advisers including Dan Egan (Reid Scott) and Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) who have internalized and aspire to the Carville cult; its just that reality interrupts to remind them that things dont work like that. Candy goes on to tell Jane, If you fight with monsters too long, you become a monster. Jane later says that shell kill herself if she loses to Candy again (though this appears to be hyperbole) She has lost every election against him. But the fact that it wants to also squeeze in a redemptive tale is completely at odds with the work the protagonist is doing. [13] Peter Straughan was set to write the script, with Clooney attached as a potential director and star for the film, about the 2002 Bolivian presidential election's campaign by James Carville's Washington, D.C.-based political consulting firm Greenberg Carville Shrum,[14][15] which was hired by candidate Gonzalo Snchez de Lozada. Negative ads are now running for Castillos campaign. The big reason it works, though, is that it takes its premise from Rachel Boyntons phenomenal (but little-known) 2005 documentary of the same name. Finally, she meets with Castillo for their first conversation. Bush strategist Lee Atwater, who by his own reported deathbed admission was an unholy monster, and to this day keeps afloat the brand of George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove. Jane insist they go negative in spite of this, but Castillo says no. Both Bullock and Thornton portray Carvillesque characters (and the bald Thornton looks the part). For those who want more detail, I have written a paragraph below containing spoilers. The way Jane and her team approaches politics makes them good at their job, but it also makes them cynical people, and the movie rarely questions their behavior until the very end when it does so in the most heavy-handed manner possible. Let me know how that goes. Jane then joins the mass of people who are walking toward the city. Before long the SUV comes to a stop in the heavy traffic on the tiny streets. Nevertheless, his brothers are much more skeptical about Castillo. But the filmmakers invent an antagonist of near-mythic stature to make her lust for a win: Billy Bob Thorntons Pat Candy, who works for the leading candidate. Among the many achievements of HBOs Veep is its discovery of a new, post-Carville political consultant character, one thats just as cuttingly entertaining but truer to reality. Castillo had been coached by Jane that if he senses any emotion or tears, to look directly into the camera. [2/4], The effort by Our Brand Is Crisis director David Gordon Green and writer Peter Straughan to turn the 2005 documentary of the same name into a light comedy with touches of romance and political hijinks leave the fictional version a poor candidate in the box office race. Critic Kenneth Turan has this review. That kind of consumer response is pretty remarkable, and it also says something about each brand's crisis management strategies. On a bus trip to a mountainous countryside, protesters start throwing rocks at the bus. "Our Brand Is Crisis" is both the title of and a line from a new political comedy about American consultants who take over a Bolivian presidential campaign. "Wake up, this is war. The interviewer talks about his son. Janes voice is heard saying, If you dont like the road youre on, start paving a new one.. Even worse, it turns out to be a humanist, socialist, anti-capitalist message about "the people" rising up to establish some sort of vague communist brotherhood centered . They plead with him that any negotiations with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) be preceded by a referendum so the people can decide. After he does this, Castillo gives Eddie his cufflinks to hold, and it is clear Eddie idolizes him. The crisis, when it came . This is yet another film that could have been PG (maybe PG-13 due to a mooning scene) with a cleaner script. Others discuss plans but Jane is silent. The poor reviews of Our Brand is Crisis are puzzling, since its one of the few non-documentary films to show successfully a) what rip-roaring fun politics can be when its only about marketing and b) what terrible things can happen when its only about marketing. Inspired by the 2005 documentary of the . In a restaurant, Jane sits alone until Candy sits next to her. Its pretty powerful, actually. The campaign advisors are telling Castillo he needs to meet with the people and be seen as one of the people. A knock on the door reveals Eddie, saddened and angry, who tells her about the IMF plan. Our Brand Is Crisis grossed $7 million in North America and $1.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $8.6 million, against a budget of $28 million. Jane gets a call from Pat who tells her to turn on the TV. Jane has accepted the offer and their plane lands in La Paz, Bolivia, which has an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet above sea level. Their main tactic is to emphasize the many problems of the economy and present . Joaquim de Almeida - Castillo. At another commercial set inside a warehouse, several llamas are there, and Castillo is set to compare the future of Bolivia with llamas, who work hard. 17-Down, Three Letters: Party for One artist Carly ___ Jepsen. When Bodine realizes that she brought a liar into office, she has the car stopped and leaves to join Eduardo. And Im not talking about content issues, like language or nudity, Im talking about the message the movie preaches at the audience. Although this is yet another nice white lady who benevolently comes to the aid of a non-white young person (in the case of Our Brand Is Crisis, it's a campaign intern who idolizes Castillo), Bullock shows a lot more shading here than in The Blind Side. 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