Documentary: Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. Rating: * *
The Yes Men Fix The World, written and directed by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, is a timely documentary about the ethics and business practices of giant corporations. The long-time political activists, with a history of situationist stunts behind them, blur the line between comedy and investigative journalism in the style of a Mark Thomas or a Michael Moore.
Their main trick is to show up at television studios, conferences and trade fairs pretending to be spokesmen representing huge industries. Then they make outrageous claims. Bichlbaum appears in a BBC studio as an official for Dow Chemical, in which capacity he promises to pay $12 billion reparation money to the Bhopali victims of the plant leak at Union Carbide.
Later, posing as an aide of Lee Raymond, former ExxonMobil CEO and National Petroleum Council bigwig, he gives a keynote speech advocating for dead victims of global warming to be used as biofuel. Later, he goes to Florida and, on behalf of the mayor, promises to allow low-income residents of public housing to remain in the homes from which they’re being evicted.
It’s not hard to admire the Yes Men for their chutzpah. Their insight into how corporate America regards human disaster as an economic opportunity is spot on. Yet this documentary is ragged and a little self-regarding. The stunts veer towards heavy-handed.
More than that, they’re superfluous: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have shown that it’s more effective to skewer targets with incisive rhetoric than with laboured pantomime.
