The Yes Men

Herald rating: * * *

This subversive and often hilarious film - the slightest offering in a bumper year or two for polemical documentaries, - looks at the exploits of two dedicated pranksters whose funny games take on an added political edge because of the gobsmacking credulity of the people who are at once their targets and their audiences.

Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are anti-corporate activists who set up a bogus World Trade Organisation website just to take the mickey. (The film doesn't mount any coherent arguments; that globalisation is A Bad Thing is a given).

That many respectable organisations were taken in is faintly amusing. But that several invited these iconoclasts to address conferences - and nodded sagely as the pair unveiled surrealistic pieces of satirical performance theatre - is something that falls between Monty Python and Kafka.

At a textile conference in Finland they extol the virtues of slavery - or, as they call it, "involuntary labour" - in improving the corporate bottom line. In the process they unveil an Employee Visualisation Appendage, which purports to be a CCTV screen on a massive inflatable penis that pops up out of a gold bodysuit.

Elsewhere they advance, straight-faced, the idea that a popular brand of hamburger can be eaten, excreted and eaten again up to 10 times with no significant loss of nutritional value. It takes a while for people to get offended, but no one ever gets the point.

Which is the point, really. These two guerrillas sneak in under the cover of their audiences' self-importance and place explosive satire in the inner workings of their world view.

The fact that no one seems to notice is the reason the attacks must be made. At a mere 83 minutes, this film feels heavily padded. But it's more than diverting, largely because the players take themselves less seriously than anyone else on screen.

DIRECTORS: Chris Smith, Dan Ollman, Sarah Price
RUNNING TIME: 83 minutes
SCREENING: Rialto