Russell Brand Has Made You A Very Russell Brand Film About The Financial Crisis

In a move which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Russell Brand has recently starred in a polemical documentary about the financial crisis and classism in the UK. While his politics have stretched all the way to Australia recently, as he called out our government’s treatment of asylum seekers (more than once), the comedian-turned-social justice pioneer has now returned to his main issue: revolution.

Though Brand acts as the instigator on screen, The Emperor’s New Clothes — not to be confused with The Emperor’s New Groove, the one where David Spade plays an animated llama — is directed by Michael Winterbottom. Known best for the beloved Steve Coogan docudrama 24 Hour Party People, Winterbottom is just as outspoken as Brand on the matter.

“[The film’s] about inequality and why the 1 percent seem to have so much and the rest of us not quite so much,” he told BBC Radio. “Everyone knows about equality and what’s going on in the world, so the idea is to point out the ludicrous extremes of our society.”

As such, the film combines interviews, comedy, archival footage, and Michael Moore-style ambush tactics to criticise financial inequality, greed, and the economic policies which make it all possible.

–

As always, it would probably be easier to acknowledge these points if I didn’t forever associate Brand with Aldous Snow.