What came first, power or money? Greenfield describes her most recent doc as an exploration of her expansive archive that examines the culture of wealth in America. The breadth of the conversation cannot physically be resolved in 2 hours. At a dense 2 hour mark, audiences heads will be spinning. From the housing market crash, to the porn industry to Kim Kardashian’s middle school class and all the way back into Greenfield’s personal life, in the end there's only one question worth asking: where do we go from here?
Cut to: 1950's America. Our automobile industry was booming. World War II wiped out Germany and Japan's economy which put America on top. As Michael Moore says on the matter, "no competition, no problem!" The upper class paid a tax rate of 90% (yeah) that the country used for secure infrastructure, schools, hospitals etc.. The white working class thrived on one household income and debt was at an all time low (And of course not everything was equal, poverty and oppression still thrived in communities of color). President Jimmy 'Debbie Downer' Carter came at the country Bernie Sanders style, attempting to breathe reality back into the self indulgent ether. Carter pleaded, "human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns (...) this is a warning." But how did the country respond? By electing former B-list film star and corporate sponsor, Ronald Reagan. Wall street found their blue-eyed puppet. Don Regan, chairman of Merrill Lynch turn Treasury Secretary (with oh-so-wholesome motives), was the master of Reagan's strings. From 1980's onward, America would be run like a corporation. Money turned into the strongest form of political power. As New York Times journalist, Chris Hedges, chillingly articulates, "societies accrue their greatest wealth at the moment they face death." Lauren Greenfield's new documentary, Generation Wealth, depicts the harsh reality of our elitist culture. If a "free market" means that anyone can acquire power by competition, Greenfield's doc explains the lengths people will go to get on top in a free-for-all.
The doc picks up at the housing crash of 08'. Florian Homm (former hedge fund manager (who bought his son a prostitute for his 16th birthday), now quarantined in Germany with pending investment fraud indictments) explains the housing bubble: after selling unstable investments, the country's financial sector majorly miscalculated the correlation between supply and demand. When supply goes up and demand stagnates, the bubble bursts. When the bubble bursts and big banks go belly up, the tax payers bail them out (which the white house puppeteers probably knew all along, making the recession an act, not of ignorance, but of deeply rooted evil).
Generation Wealth is best summed up by the story of aspiring actress and former porn star Kacey Jordan. Her hunger for wealth, worth and power chased her straight down the lens of the porn industry. One particular film, in which she received 56 mens' ejaculation and contracted salmonella, shot her straight into the spotlight. Whatever it takes, right?
A sobering and startling take on the virus that has been plaguing America for generations. A culmination of 25 years worth of photography, interviews and vignettes. Greenfield is best known for Queen of Versailles, a doc about timeshare king and queen; David and Jackie Siegel, as they set out to build their new home modeled after the Palace of Versailles. The Siegel's, among other exuberantly wealthy and existentially lost people, make up the narrative in Generation Wealth. Unlike Greenfield's classic non narrative style, she invites her upbringing into this story. Through this device she curbs, what could have been, a holier than thou portrayal of today's greed. Although the Greenfield's live a modest (lavish to most) lifestyle, the personal narrative takes the audience slightly off track. Because the sea of over-the-top stories are so unbelievable, Greenfield's workaholic-ism seems less relevant. If the story seeks to debunk the unnatural, i.e., money, sex and politics, it does so loosely. After opening Pandora's box; the unequal financial system, we bulldoze through twenty-five years worth of stories. The content is dense, impressive and ultimately dizzying. Is Greenfield looking to overwhelm? Like a metaphor for the excess epidemic at hand? At almost two hours, the audience is brought to the highest peak with no safe way down.
Whether the lack of resolution is intentional or the copious narratives simply cave in on one another is unclear. Greenfield's research begins in the 1990's, dropping in on the lives of dynamically wealthy youth (Kate Hudson and Kim Kardashian middle school realness). In a longitudinal structure, Greenfield circles back to these subjects with a wildly rewarding ‘where are they now’-esque full circle. Some of her subjects she shows ravaged by the life of high class, highlighting their wrinkled empty eyes. Others have since ditched the life of excess, finding solid ground with a modest lifestyle.
If there’s one thing we can all agree, it’s that Greenfield knows how to capture people. In the face of a long overdue conversation, Greenfield gives you the pill, but you still have to take it.