PrimeWire

SPOILERS:

The genre of this film approaches, but fails at, social realism. Why can’t working people afford a house, or an apartment, even a rented room, or medicine, or good food? Why do these general conditions of want exist? A facile try at an answer is proffered early in the film, then abandoned - that we are at fault for our condition because we have voluntarily accepted the “yoke of the dollar”. You were born, the dollar got here before you, did someone offer you a choice? “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings”. So what is poverty then, a character flaw? There is a system we all live under. Do fish ever wonder of us if we realise we swim in an economy? It works. It works for the right people, it is unbroken. It is not a mistake. Is cause and effect no longer operative? This film works as a minimalist slice-of-life, never broaching the why. It presents a cleaned up version of the condition yet tells us nothing of the pathology.The film offers sentiment in its stead; of good works, charity, and the golden rule. (All suggested as a proper way of life by the victims for other victims to follow). Now operative is a more contemporary golden rule, “Them’s with the gold, makes the rules.” You have likely tried to suss this all out. In future, ask yourself this question: Who is the economy for?