The Ambassador (2012)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 8
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 580
My Rating
Movie Info
This darkly comic, genre-bending piece of gonzo journalism from international provocateur Mads Brügger rips the corroded lid off the global scheme of political corruption and exploitation happening in one of the most dangerous places on the planet: the Central African Republic. Armed with a phalanx of hidden cameras, black-market diplomatic credentials and a bleeding-edge wit, Brügger transforms himself into an outlandish caricature of a European-African consul. As he immerses himself in the
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All Critics (36) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (8)
At film's end, you'll probably feel like having a long, hot shower, metaphoric or otherwise, to wash away the mire Brügger has presented.
Top Critic[Brugger] returns with a jaw-dropping exposé of postcolonial corruption; he's lucky he returned with his head.
You can imagine how this could have become a 1950s British comedy. It is all real.
'The Ambassador" is a sociopolitical prankumentary in which the prank blows up in the filmmaker's face, exploding-cigar style.
The picture sometimes seems to have been assembled rather than creatively edited.
A stunning, funny, and vital piece of guerilla cinema.
A wild, darkly comic slice of nonfiction branded 'performative journalism' by its creator. Ballsy, attention-grabbing and a lot of fun for anyone with an interest in matters geopolitical.
Supposedly nothing is staged. Truthfully, so much of this film is stranger than fiction, it would require pure writing genius to come up with even a third of what transpires.
Taken as satire, this isn't particularly funny - but then, the corruption he's exposing is anything but a joke.
Brügger recalls gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who once went undercover with the Hell's Angels. Brügger has similar intentions, and mostly he succeeds. If only he had Thompson's way with words.
Give Brugger points for audacity and for a caustic wit that produces some solid laughs, yet the result isn't quite as eye-opening as perhaps he intended.
There's a touch of whimsy to his misadventures, but the malfeasance he uncovers -- often using hidden cameras and microphones -- is anything but a joke.
A hilarious, courageous and fascinating trip into the soft underbelly of back market African politics.
Full of incredulous guffaws at the open and expected corruption in this part of the world. But don't expect to be tickled. This film is making a point.
In a time of intense niche-marketing, particularly of lower budget films, it is quite refreshing to come away from a movie and think, "wait, what the hell did I just see?"
Danish documentarian and full-time provocateur Mads Brügger is either fearless or insane, possibly a combination of both.
The closest I've ever seen to a real-life Heart of Darkness, but funnier.
Flamboyant Danish journalist-documentarian Mads Brügger takes on a deep, dark and nefarious topic--the harvesting of blood diamonds in the Central African Republic--but within a comic, loopy framework.
Deserves serious points for boldness, though not cohesiveness.
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August 30, 2012:
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Foreign Titles
- The Ambassador (Ambassadoren) (DE)
- The Ambassador (Ambassadoren) (UK)
