"Generation Wealth" (2018 release; 105 min.) is a documentary about people's obsession with wealth. As the movie opens, we get to know the director, Lauren Greenfield, and how in the early 90s when she started as a photo journalist she chose to focus on a group of high school kids in Santa Monica (we see Kate Hudson aged 12, among others). Greenfield revisits with those kids, now 25 years later. In a separate path we are introduced to Florian Homm, a former hedge-fund manager who fled the US when he was indicted and is all but too happy to tell us his story. "I love money, come to me!", he exults. At this point we are 10 min. into the film, but to tell you more of the story would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments; this is the latest documentary from writer-director Lauren Greenfield, who previously gave us the excellent "The Queen of Versailles" documentary (in essence about the same themes as this movie). And while the intended topic of the film is appealing (is our society becoming more obsessed with wealth than, say, 25 years ago?), the movie turns out to be a convoluted mess, albeit a beautiful mess. For one, the movie becomes far too personal, as we get much footage about Greenfield's family, in particular her parents, and also her 10 and 15 yr. old sons, who both express their annoyance, time and again, with their mom's seemingly endless filming of their personal lives. No idea what that has to do with wealth obsession as such. But along the way we do get to see many outrageous moments expressing "a lot is good, more is better'. As Greenfield summarizes it: "I'm looking at the extreme to understand the mainstream". In the end, the documentary is a disappointing, yet at time intriguing, bag. Somewhat of a missed chance, really.
"Generation Wealth" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and it finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend. The Friday evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (5 people, including myself), not a good sign for a movie's opening day. If you liked "The Queen of Versailles", I suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments; this is the latest documentary from writer-director Lauren Greenfield, who previously gave us the excellent "The Queen of Versailles" documentary (in essence about the same themes as this movie). And while the intended topic of the film is appealing (is our society becoming more obsessed with wealth than, say, 25 years ago?), the movie turns out to be a convoluted mess, albeit a beautiful mess. For one, the movie becomes far too personal, as we get much footage about Greenfield's family, in particular her parents, and also her 10 and 15 yr. old sons, who both express their annoyance, time and again, with their mom's seemingly endless filming of their personal lives. No idea what that has to do with wealth obsession as such. But along the way we do get to see many outrageous moments expressing "a lot is good, more is better'. As Greenfield summarizes it: "I'm looking at the extreme to understand the mainstream". In the end, the documentary is a disappointing, yet at time intriguing, bag. Somewhat of a missed chance, really.
"Generation Wealth" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and it finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend. The Friday evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (5 people, including myself), not a good sign for a movie's opening day. If you liked "The Queen of Versailles", I suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.