Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.
The Yes Men is a genuinely distinctive and audacious documentary capturing Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno's elaborate WTO impersonation pranks with sharp political wit. The film's novelty is its standout quality — the concept of activists brazenly posing as WTO officials at real conferences and on mainstream TV is singular and hilarious. The plotting is episodic but engaging, structured around a series of escalating stunts. Cinematography is functional fly-on-the-wall documentary work with no particular visual ambition. The 'acting' in terms of the pranksters' performances is impressively deadpan, though the documentary framing limits traditional acting evaluation. The ending is satisfying but doesn't quite deliver a knockout final revelation, leaving it slightly open-ended in a way that feels more happenstance than deliberate.