The Plot

Russell Brand brings his successful viral video series The Trews to the big screen with the help of director Michael Winterbottom, as he tackles the complex subject of the financial crisis in a mere 100 minute documentary.

The Good

Anyone who’s viewed a video on Russell Brand’s The Trews Youtube Channel will know just how passionate a man he is when it comes to politics and finance. You need simply view a couple of minutes of any of his videos to figure out instantly, how this, his latest documentary will turn out.

Opening with Brand reciting the classic titular story of the Emperor who is fooled into wearing invisible clothes, The Emperor’s New Clothes moves swiftly on for the remainder of its surprisingly short runtime (given its extremely tough subject matter) with Brand throwing an alarmingly dense amount of information in his usual jovial manner. And yet, it still manages to keep you informed, entertained and most importantly, interested. While the financial status of the world today is an incredibly tricky subject to present in a way that doesn’t bore audiences, Brand, for the most part, manages to pull it off.

At no point are we, the audience made to feel stupid as he rambles on and on about the 1% in between various case studies (for want of a better phrase) that shows just how the current financial state is affecting the average Briton.

Praise must also be given for pulling off an impressive collection of information and statistics in such a small amount of time. Brand certainly has a knack for presenting his ideas in a mostly coherent way.

The Bad

Unfortunately, with Brand presenting the entire documentary, his characteristics become quite important to how audiences will react to the information given. At one point he even takes a dig at himself when he admits that he is essentially part of this 1% which he constantly reduces to an act of a typical antagonist, which sends an impression that perhaps he isn’t to be trusted completely when it comes to this subject. However, he becomes much more tolerable as the  film goes on.

It’s also a shame that nothing particularly new comes to light at any point in the documentary. The impressive, fanciful way in which he gives his presentation is indeed entertaining, but ultimately falls flat when his conclusion is the same as anyone else’s really. No amount of interviewing the general public or trying and failing to infiltrate and interview the big banking bosses is going to change anything it seems. And if it does, Brand most likely won’t be the person who does it.

The Ugly Truth

Russell Brand brings his usual comic self to some good use but ultimately fails to produce anything particularly groundbreaking with it. At its true essence, The Emperor’s New Clothes is simply an extended episode of The Trews, and we can get that easily enough by just making a playlist on Youtube now…