The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel

After watching the corporation (2003) before this sequel, I'm not sure how these two documentaries can be comparable to each other. One describes in depth what corporations are and how they have impacted the world, while this new film doesn't speak of corporations almost at all.

We all know from the first film what corporations have done, and other documentaries have informed us of the culmination of what happens in a society that is now corporate controlled. I'm talking about the financial crisis movies that have shown what corps can do with their power. As well as the social dilemma, and Edward Snowden docs which highlight what corporations are doing which is mining our information. Finally climate docs which highlight how unchecked stripping of resources destroys ecosystems.

This documentary however is basically an overview of what we know and what has been released previously, while also giving an overview of recent historical uprisings/protests.

Overall I really don't think this doc was as informative and crucial as the first. We all know by now that corps control the world, and that the gap between the haves and the have nots is widening. This doesn't give much insight as to the change that is suggested throughout. Intense capitalism and intense socialism are the current state of affairs, and will be until there is a state which doesn't value competition between anyone, at all.

Only a certain amount of $ and collectivism can do that. So all out socialism can only work through a manifestation of current capitalism to suit the collective. Those with the most power are the only ones that can do this, so siding against the corps (which seems to be the message here) isn't going to do any good, imho.

Ricky Meffe review. Twitter: Rickymeffe

90% of the negative reviewers either didn't watch the movie or came into it with a decidedly anti-socialism (a word that they couldn't define in real world terms) bent and pro-capitalism mindset.

For one thing, the movie is OK. Points out how big banks and corporations have taken to hiding behind the "social justice" messages they've cribbed from whatever actual movement is convenient for them at a given time. They don't pick the best interview subjects (we've all heard Bernie "Sheepdog" Sanders and AOC's (correct) spiels before). They could have sought out people like Howie Hawkins or other less-well-known advocates for *actual* socialism and for reining in the power that these organizations exercise over our government through dark money, lobbying, insider-trading and outright bribery.

Nobody including negative reviewers cares to point out how "crony capitalism" and "corporate capitalism" are any different from each other because they haven't done the homework or read authors like Michael Hudson or seen movies like "The Wobblies" about the IWW. If they had, they'd know what the "Overton Window" is and that it was in fact "radical left-wing socialists" who are responsible for the end of child labor and the 8 hour work day among many other things including the New Deal which - unlike the bailouts of too-big-to-jail banks in 2008 - bailed out the American working class and set up bulwarks against monopolistic, unethical corporate practices. The Republicans starting with Reagan and continuing through Democrats like Clinton systematically tore down as much of that as they could on behalf of their financial/corporate masters (buy bye Glass-Steagall!!! Hello NAFTA!!!) and in the same time period the Overton Window has intentionally been shifted to the right with even Starbucks baristas forming unions portrayed as "radical leftists" trying to bring down capitalism (also, why do people insist on capitalizing that word as though it's a proper noun? I'll tell you - the consistent, constant propaganda paid for by the big banks/corps and unwittingly consumed and absorbed by the would-be working class).

Take away the Overton Window and there's absolutely zero "left-wing" or "radical left" to this film. Anyone who called Obama a leftist should not be trusted to objectively review it. All in all, the Necessary Sequel is a bit of a let-down from the previous movie, but worth watching if you can do so with an open mind (something far too many of my closed-minded "conservative" friends think they have, but really don't, thanks to YouTube influencers and the like).

Even though I'm totally on the capitalism-hating boundwagon, it's still hard to rate this film as a documentary regarding an unbiased, neutral look at a relative subject. Being essentially an open love letter to Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all socialist activists in the west world, and likewise zealously bashing and pounding on Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc, this film shouldn't be sorted as a documentary.

How this film works, however, is regarded as an essay film which theorises certain attributes towards the "giant" corporations and their devastating and deadly effects on the present world, just "for a few dollars more". In this standpoint, the film is a wholesome and comprehensive work for it points out several pitfalls and valid issues within those corporations, builds up a hypothesis to generalize their conducts, and in the final third part arrives at a fully fleshed-out solution.

If you are looking for a documentary presenting or representing facts and realities, then this film is likely to disappoint. But if you are looking for a totally biased explanation and analysis of our modern universe, then this is definitely something to consider.

Quite an interesting documentary to watch, it does highlight the state of affairs with crony-capitalism and how it's making us point fingers at each other, rather than a bunch of massive global corporations which are reaping huge profits off the back of our taxes and simultaneously lowing our standards of living. We've been sold out by people in our governments, and will be worked to death to fund what amounts to corporate socialism.

It does lose focus at points, and repeats in a few places but overall I did enjoy watching it.

A sequel to a 2003 documentary I first saw back in high school, the 17 years between that film and its sequel has certainly given The New Corporation a great deal of material to cover in its 106-minute runtime. It argues that corporations have become sneakier and more fake-friendly since the 2010s, seeing as tides have changed a little, and the blatant disregard for human lives isn't something they're able to get away with as easily (the 2003 original spent almost 2.5 hours diagnosing the corporation as a psychopath, or at least saying the concept of a corporation would be a psychopath if it were a person).

With a great deal of topics and issues to tackle, The New Corporation is worryingly scattershot at first. It doesn't always feel like it has much of a reason for existing in its opening scenes, and feels underwhelming and a little tired as a result. It does considerably pick up steam at a point, and thankfully became very interesting after its shaky start. It takes some complicated, difficult ideas and explains them very well; certainly in a more competent and understandable way than some YouTube videos I've seen on issues surrounding capitalism and corporate influence on politics.

I feel like it reverts to the messiness of the opening scenes in its closing scenes, unfortunately. It covers some 2020 events that are important issues, but doesn't always do the best job at linking them to issues surrounding corporations (there should be documentaries about the George Floyd protests, but maybe not this documentary - there are some loose connections to the main issues of The New Corporation, but it's not as relevant as some of the other things discussed).

It does also let a few politicians off the hook, but the fact it often comes back to "the system doesn't work; we need a new system" makes the criticisms of conservatives feel less pro-centre-left and more just against the system that lets conservative parties do damage. Others may feel differently, though; that's to be expected when politics enter into a documentary, but I don't think they could've avoided getting political altogether here.