The Yes Men

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from a documentary called "The Yes Men" that was directed by three people, but what I got was a really fun 80 minutes. The film follows a few members of the anti-corporate activist group (whose main target is the World Trade Organization) as they pull pranks in order to sabotage the large companies/organizations they disagree with. Pretty much what Michael Moore (who is featured for a few moments) does, only The Yes Men handle things in a different manner. Stemming from a situation in which they were mistaken for the World Trade Organization after someone viewed the satirical website they designed ABOUT the World Trade Organization, they accepted an offer to speak on behalf of the WTO at an International conference. Since then, they have made sporadic appearances on panels, in lectures, even on television representing the WTO, only obviously not spewing the WTO rhetoric, but inserting their own (most times offensive and outlandish) topics instead.

"The Yes Men" is not a great documentary, but I eat this kind of stuff right up because I find the concept of creative activism to be an intriguing one, and the way that these men are managing to infiltrate some of these organizations is not only amusing but really intelligent as well. The film is incredibly short, and personally, it left me wanting more, but I don't think there is a lot more that could be said about what they are doing that wasn't already succinctly addressed. I found the subject to be an interesting and increasingly relevant one, and the four featured Yes Men were hilarious and endearing. There wasn't a lot for me to dislike about the film, but it's not something I would recommend to a lot of people. Michael Moore fans would really dig it though. 7/10 --Shelly

I saw this hilarious and very entertaining film at the Berlin Film Festival in February of this year. Very refreshing look at the 'WTO' and its side kicks from an inside point of view. A subversive political documentary with a sense of humour in the vein of 'Bowling for Columbine'. All the travel, costuming and filming were done with the smallest budget and the 'actors' just two guys who want to reveal a few things about how stuff gets done in the US of A! During the Q and A someone asked a question about the legality of using some of the clips and whether they had permission to film the conferences.

It was clear that all these issues had been covered and the film releases this autumn in Europe as far as I know.

This shows how some of the bizarre scripts written by well meaning but now largely irrelevant organisations have been become so muddled that many of the audience don't realize the joke is on them. With a few notable exceptions the America we see on our daily news has had an irony bypass already and forget satire so it is great to learn that the artform is not lost by the Yes Men.

NZ's very own former PM and trade minister most famous for "lamb burgers" and (sincerely convinced WTOer) Mike Moore gets a photo shot early in the film when a WTO site is shown. He is followed closely by the other Mike Moore who is much better known but wasn't really needed in the film.

The remote workers viewing device (phallus) had our festival audience in apoplexy and deserves to be shown widely especially the animated sections.

On the whole though it was refreshing to think that a few clever protests with careful thought and some talented execution can create ripples on the pond so wide that millions of people have now seen the echoes in a media format somewhere near them.

In a world where individual action often seems puny it was great to see it is still possible to be funny and absolutely relevant and tactical without being boring.

After the birth of Fahrenheit 9/11 and other Michael Moore creations, there has been a plethora of politically driven documentaries entering the media culture. More and more films are being created to showcase either the ingenuity of the activists, or to uncover some unknown corruption in the system that we were not familiar with. It is a chance to be educated about the world surrounding us and the honesty of evil. In one of the most recent documentary releases, The Yes Men, we have the opportunity to both see the ingenuity of the activists and slightly uncover some corruption in the world. While The Yes Men is a very active film giving us these nervous moments of tension as two men pretend to be someone that they are not, the words and final moments that they are trying to convey do not always seem to come full circle. It felt as if they had this huge "ta-da" at the end of their crafty moment, but nobody seemed to care. Everyone agreed and went about their normal business. I guess that was the point that these activists were trying to show, but somehow I felt like it was all a part of some lackluster performance instead of this "in-your-face, this is wrong with our country" moment.

Our two main characters that we follow throughout the course of the film, Mike Bonanno and Dr. Andreas Bichlbauer (as if these are their real names), seem like they have such a grasp on their knowledge of the issues that they would want a bigger change to happen at the end of their "moment of glory" instead of just walking away as if they were just another cog in the machine. For example, their first speech overseas about the WTO and this phallic device that will help supervisors maintain their workers was a punch in the face, but like my reaction to the situation, nobody seemed to care. I think, in this case, it hurt the film. I wanted feedback from the audience about this bold move by the WTO and see outrage in their eyes, but instead nobody seemed to care. The same can be said about the last conference they attend where they officially close the WTO. That is a huge statement, and yet again … nobody seemed to care. Sure, there were people afterwords talking about how happy they were, but the excitement or emotion was just not present. I wanted, and honestly needed, something that showed that these activists were making riffs in the corporate eyes of the world, not just filling a time slot.

The only time that they did not get such a passive response was when they spoke during a college class about the food solution in third world countries. Here, we did see the emotion and the anger at what they suggested, albeit was a bit more graphic and disturbing, but there was an outburst at the idea. The only trouble is that I have been to conferences before, and most of the time you are there because your business has forced you to be there, so you will believe anything that is said until the day is over just to get through. In college, you pay for your schooling so independent thought really is encouraged and is shown in this film. I do not think that this college scene did the justice that it deserved and really didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the film. I think these guys wanted to get some raw emotion reactions from anyone, and they found it here. I think they were trying to overcompensate for what their other conferences were missing. Sadly, it felt more like a jumbled mess instead of a valued point.

Overall, I was somewhat impressed with some of the aspects of this film, while not impressed with others. I thought the fact that these two "nobodys" could get into these conferences without a lick of accreditation or background check. Especially after the world's security tightened after 9/11. I think that was the aspect that shocked me the most. The rest of the film was interesting to watch, it just never felt like it was edited together correctly or that there was this big "ooooohhhhhh……ahhhhhhhhh" sort of moments. Like the audiences at the conferences, I sat back and watched without really seeing the outcome of their work. I would have liked to know more about these guys and the changes they made to our global community. I would have liked to see at least one curmudgeon old man getting angry about what these two radicals thought, but nothing. Just plain agreement and wipe the slate clean. I felt the Yes Men focused to deeply on the development of each situation without having any sort of strong follow-up with the results. That hurt this film deeply. Perhaps I have grown accustomed to the "shock-umentary" style of film-making that is being released more and more, but I just never felt passionate about these guys. They were doing good work, but will it be remembered for years to come? I am not 100% sold on it yet.

Grade: *** out of *****

The Yes Men is a brilliant and hilarious documentary by the filmmakers of American Movie. I checked it out at last year's Toronto film festival.

The film centres around a small group of anti-globalization activists who went around the world posing as WTO representatives at major industry conferences. Their appalling presentations were often met with applause by world business leaders.

The only problem is that the documentarians mentioned they did not have promission to shoot what they were filming and thus are having a difficult time getting the rights to the images from the conferences they were at. It would be a real shame if The Yes Men was not allowed to be released in theatres.