The Emperor’s New Clothes is a polemic on the banking crisis and the ever-growing divide between rich and poor presented by Russell Brand and Michael Winterbottom. The pair were at one point developing an adaptation of Brand’s memoir, but Brand’s new-found political and social conscience resulted in a complete retooling.
In the film Brand meets with people struggling to get by. There’s a bit of doorstepping as well, with Brand attempting to confront prominent London bankers and other fat cats. At all times he is unsuccessful and chooses instead to badger security people.
The film convinces by telling us things we already know. By the close of the picture we feel for the common man, we feel for local business owners, for small British towns and African slums, and we hate those bloody bankers. But most of all we feel as if we’ve learned very little and that we’ve been talked down to a great deal.
Words: Luke Maxwell
