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Movies / On DVD / Our Brand Is Crisis
Our Brand Is Crisis

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Our Brand Is Crisis (2005)

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Reviews Counted:15

Fresh:13

Rotten:2

Average Rating:7.2/10

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 87 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Mar 1, 2006 Limited

Synopsis: Rachel Boynton's excellent, probing documentary goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows... Rachel Boynton's excellent, probing documentary goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows members of the consulting firm of Greenberg Carville Shrum to Bolivia, where they have been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency. With only a few weeks left before the election, consultants Jeremy Rosner, Stan Greenberg, and James Carville work their magic, softening Goni's liberal image and shaping his message to appeal to the masses. In his typically audacious fashion, Carville delivers some of the film's most unforgettable quips. Meanwhile, the unemployment situation is threatening to spark a full-fledged national riot, raising the stakes even higher. Boynton's film is edited at a brisk, taut pace, adding drama to the already tense proceedings. An insightful after-the-fact interview with Rosner provides even greater context for the horrific situation that unfolded a year later and which, in fact, opens the film with a bang. Enlightening, engaging, and thought provoking, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is a vital, profound work of nonfiction cinema. [More]

Starring: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada

Starring: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada

Director: Rachel Boynton

Director: Rachel Boynton
Producer: Rachel Boynton
Studio: Koch Lorber Films

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Release:

Sep 5, 2006

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • A Film by Rachel Boynton.
  • For decades, U.S. strategists-for-hire have been quietly molding the opinions of voters and the messages of candidates in elections from the Middle East to the South American jungle. OUR BRAND IS CRISIS follows James Carville, Jeremy Rosner, and a team of political consultants as they launch a media-savvy campaign for Bolivian presidential candidate Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. With unprecedented access to think sessions, media training, and the making of smear campaigns, witness a shocking example of America "spreading democracy" overseas and its earth-shattering aftermath.
  • "Momentous...astounding!" Laura Kern, The New York Times
  • "...a fascinating glimpse of the Americanized marketing of international politics..." Premiere Magazine
  • WINNER: International Documentary Association (IDA) Award
  • Source: Koch Entertainment Distribution
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Our Brand Is Crisis

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    1 - 15 (sorted by date)
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    The movie is both frightening and ironically funny, sometimes both.

    Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
    11/24/06
    John Monaghan
    John Monaghan
    Detroit Free Press
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Politics and mass communication are the volatile subjects of Rachel Boynton's information-packed documentary.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
    07/27/06
    Michael Wilmington
    Michael Wilmington
    Chicago Tribune
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It's a galling and provocative experience to viewers of any political persuasion, and a reminder to the left of how easily idealism can run amok.

    Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
    07/01/06
    Ty Burr
    Ty Burr
    Boston Globe
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Unlikely as it sounds, a documentary that details with jaw-dropping candor how contemporary political campaigning works at the highest levels of government is set not in this country but in the far-off reaches of Bolivia.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
    04/13/06
    Kenneth Turan
    Kenneth Turan
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Political junkies will love this movie.

    Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
    03/30/06
    Stephen Hunter
    Stephen Hunter
    Washington Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Ultimately provides a vivid illustration of the not-so-hopeful future of international politics.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    03/14/06
    Frank Scheck
    Frank Scheck
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Gani is certainly no hero and his American strategists come off as the worst sort of interlopers.

    Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
    03/03/06
    Jack Mathews
    Jack Mathews
    New York Daily News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    What's eye-opening, as well as depressing, is that the film reveals how even the politics of a nation's life and death can now be reduced to a technocratic shell game.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
    03/01/06
    Owen Gleiberman
    Owen Gleiberman
    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Only a naïf would be surprised by Our Brand Is Crisis, but only a nihilist would not be alarmed by the endless reverberations of Boynton’s case study—and by its suggestion of a systemic separation of modern politics and the national good.

    Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
    03/01/06
    David Edelstein
    David Edelstein
    New York Magazine
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Our Brand Is Crisis proves as entertaining as the earlier The War Room, which also featured Carville, but is more somber.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    03/01/06
    Ronnie Scheib
    Ronnie Scheib
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Boynton maintains a relatively level tone and clear eye and, thus, allows her audience to ask some hard questions about whether our democratic process translates all that clearly in other countries.

    Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
    03/01/06
    Gene Seymour
    Gene Seymour
    Newsday
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Boynton isn't interested in telling a story, only in the atmosphere of political consultancy. But we already knew this kind of thing happens in American politics. Why shouldn't Bolivia be entitled to sophisticated polling advice?

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    03/01/06
    Kyle Smith
    Kyle Smith
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Rachel Boynton's momentous documentary chronicles the election-strategizing process in scrupulous detail.

    comment Comment
    03/01/06
    Laura Kern
    Laura Kern
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Among other things, Our Brand Is Crisis is about the failure of good intentions -- a potent American theme at the moment.

    Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
    02/28/06
    David Denby
    David Denby
    New Yorker
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Exotic location notwithstanding, Rachel Boynton's riveting political documentary Our Brand Is Crisis is a sequel to the Clinton-era campaign vérité, The War Room.

    Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
    02/28/06
    J. Hoberman
    J. Hoberman
    Village Voice
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
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