''The Emperor's New Clothes'' is a 2015

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about the growing disparity between economic classes, directed by

Michael Winterbottom Michael Winterbottom (born 29 March 1961) is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—''Welcome to Sarajevo'', ''Wonderland (1999 film), Wonderland'' and ''24 ...

and starring actor/activist

Russell Brand Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, podcaster and media personality. He established himself as a stand-up comedian and radio host before becoming a film actor. After beginning his career as a comedian and la ...

Synopsis

The film contains archival footage from the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

and

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

paired with "comedic send-ups" from Brand, conducted in the financial districts of London and New York. In one scene in the film, Brand attempts to confront

Lord Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in ...

, the billionaire owner of the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'', about his "

non-dom In the United Kingdom, taxation may involve payments to at least three different levels of government: central government (HM Revenue and Customs), devolved governments and local government. Central government revenues come primarily from inco ...

" tax status, through which he avoids paying taxes in the United Kingdom by claiming residence elsewhere. When Brand rings the bell at Rothermere's London mansion and asks through the intercom to speak to him, he is told by an unseen person that Rothermere does indeed live there. Winterbottom stated that the film will explore why "nothing has changed" since the

. "It's about inequality and why the 1 percent (of the world's wealthy) seem to have so much and the rest of us not quite so much," Winterbottom told the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in October 2014. "Everyone knows about equality and what's going on in the world, so the idea is to point out the ludicrous extremes of our society." The documentary began shooting in October. Winterbottom and Brand had previously discussed—but ultimately abandoned—the idea of producing a film version of Brand's first memoir, ''

My Booky Wook ''My Booky Wook'' is a memoir, written by English comedian and actor Russell Brand, published in 2007 by Hodder & Stoughton. It was released in North America and Australia in 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers. Summary This warts-and-all account ...

''.

Distribution and release

The film is produced by Winterbottom's Revolution Films company and distributed by

StudioCanal UK StudioCanal Limited, trade name, doing business as StudioCanal UK (formerly known as Optimum Releasing), is a British film distribution division and the official British branch of the French film & television production and distribution company ...

. ''The Emperor's New Clothes'' debuted in London on 21 April 2015, followed by a question-and-answer session with Brand. It made its international debut in the Spotlight Category on 24 April at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a 60% approval rating based on 40 reviews, with an average ranking of 5.6/10. The site's consensus states: "''The Emperor's New Clothes'' offers trenchant, timely insight on the current socioeconomic climate that is only partly undermined by star Russell Brand's self-aggrandizing on-screen persona". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of a 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Martin Tsal of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote "Advocacy documentaries simply don't get better or more compelling than this". David Calhoun of '' Time Out'' said "Even if you can't stand the sight of this greasy Jesus, you might warm to the tub-thumping political doc mentaryhe's made with director Michael Winterbottom". According to

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' the film is "moderately effective agitprop".

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's Scott Tobias criticised the film for its branding, calling it a "hectoring irritant throughout the film". A similar criticism came from Noel Murray of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' who added "Russell Brand rants about the economy for 101 goddamn minutes in

his film His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, i ...

. Following the film's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Kenji Fujishima wrote "''The Emperor's New Clothes'' suggests that Russell Brand has picked up a few tactics from

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

". While Fujishima was rather fond of the film, another contributor of ''Slant''s, Clayton Dillard, criticised the film for "hyping Russell Brand as a constituent for the people

ather Ather Energy is an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013. It manufactures electric scooters including the Ather 450 series and Ather Rizta. It has EV man ...

than locating the means for sustained economic transformation". Even though the US publications were mixed on the film, the national newspapers in Britain and Ireland were mostly fond of ''The Emperor's New Clothes''.

Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called the film " nentertaining attack on the dishonesty and mediocrity of Britain's corporate overlords". Geoffrey Macnab of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' wrote "Brand puts across a familiar message in a very lucid and entertaining fashion". ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''s

Nigel Andrews Nigel Andrews FRSA (born 3 April 1947)ANDREWS, Nigel John
''Who's Who 2015'', A & C ...

have praised the film for its "Socratic dialogues". According to Charlotte O'Sullivan of the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', the film " spects our intelligence and bombards us with jolting facts about the ever-widening gap between rich and poor". Wendy Ide of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' was the only British critic who gave the film a negative review, stating "''The Emperor's New Clothes'' is a case study in the pitfalls of personality-led documentary". Donald Clarke of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' was also critical of the film, stating "Many sympathetic to the comic's critique of bandit capitalism will be repelled by his flamboyant self-regard". From Australia,

Sandra Hall Sandra L. Hall (born September 5, 1951) is an American blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. She has been billed as Atlanta's "Empress of the Blues" Hall is an Honorary Member of the Atlanta Blues Society. To date she has released five ...

of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' stated "Angry but affable is the style adopted by British comic Russell Brand for this extended rant against the sins of the rich and powerful".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Emperor's New Clothes (2015 documentary), The Documentary films about the Great Recession 2015 documentary films 2015 films British documentary films Films directed by Michael Winterbottom Russell Brand 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language documentary films