Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion

The people behind this documentary definitely want you to be outraged. They're just not entirely clear on what they want you to be outraged about. So the series takes a scattershot approach, throwing everything at the wall and hoping something will stick. There are indictments of demographically-targeted marketing, social media promotion, the fashion industry generally and fast fashion in particular. The approach is broad rather than deep, and devoid of any serious investigation or revelatory insights. Apparently the filmmakers thought that stacking a bunch of nothingburgers together would make a meal, but very little in this supposed expose merits more than a shrug.

There wasn't a need for this. Clothes are cheap and disposable but everyone in this is or was totally on board for it. Until they weren't a part of it.

This wants to be "White Hot: Abercrombie" from two years ago so bad you can taste it.

Old guys make tasteless and wildly inappropriate jokes on a private text chain- shocking to no one.

People are hired and fired based on surface level appearance- live by the sword die by the sword.

This is a faux doc for the self obsessed that parades out a pastiche of green concern for the earth, or something. None of these people care even a little bit.

Nothing new and nothing even remotely surprising to be had here.

I don't usually write reviews on here, but as a father with teenage daughters, this felt important. A lot of reviews on here are complaining about nonsense. This is an eye opening documentary. Everyone needs to see this to understand that the price of the clothes that we wear is so much more than what's on the price tag.

This should be required viewing for all teenagers. As a high school teacher, I have seen firsthand how detrimental the mentalities that fast fashion push are to our young people. This is important filmmaking.

The pacing is compelling, the interviews are enlightening, and the overall message is everything a documentary should be: sobering and ultimately helpful.

Do yourself a favor and watch.

To be completely honest, there was nothing much of substance here. The exposé failed to really expose anything that hasn't already been said on youtube. I mean really, it felt almost like they'd just watched a youtube video and threw it together particularly when the subplot (an overall criticism of fast fashion and consumerism) felt detached from the brandy section in any way other then the fact brandy is fast fashion. I also felt that they glossed over a lot of details they could have further analysed such as the whole apartment saga and the fact the owner is allegedly a p***phile. Overall a half baked documentary.

As "Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion" (2024 release; 92 min) opens, we hear from a young woman, talking about her first purchase at Brandy Mellville when she was a 7th grader. We then go back in time to learn about the origins of the company, with its Italian founder Stephen Marsan quickly focusing in on the US market despite not speaking English whatsoever. At this point we are 10 minutes in the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Oscar-winning producer-writer-director Eva Orner ("Taxi to the Dark Side"). Here she pulls back the curtain on a company that became a phenom for teenage girls (core focus on 14-15-16 year olds). Also how skinny white teenage girls (preferable with blond hair and blue eyes) were the key focus for store employees. Then it gets much worse, including among others blatant anti-Semitism among the company management. The documentary also addresses the waste crisis resulting from fast fashion. The footage from Ghana is shocking, to say the least. (Note that this waste crisis is also addressed in another recent documentary called "Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy".) Combine off of these separate but related issues, and this makes for very sobering viewing, and then some.

"Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion" premiered at this year's South by Southwest festival, to immediate acclaim. This documentary is currently rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which seems quite generous to me. This is now streaming on Max, where I saw it the other night. If you have any interest in Brandy Melville's business practices or in the crisis of waste, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.