All About the Money,<\/a> a fascinating and often darkly amusing documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.<\/p>\nThe film follows Fergie Chambers, a self-proclaimed communist who uses his inherited wealth to fund radical political movements, including an ambitious experiment in communal living in rural Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Chambers is a compelling, if frequently frustrating, central figure. Outspoken, unpredictable and seemingly oblivious to his own privilege, he rails against economic inequality while exercising enormous influence over those who depend on his generosity.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s the problem with extreme wealth, it distorts everything around you and it changes everybody’s behaviour,” O’Shea told RT\u00c9 Entertainment.<\/p>\n
It’s an observation that underpins the film’s most interesting moments, particularly when the consequences of Chambers’ grand ambitions begin to affect those around him.<\/p>\n
Watch: The trailer for All About the Money<\/p>\n
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Chambers’ current imprisonment in Spain adds another striking dimension to a story already defined by contradictions between wealth, power and political conviction.<\/p>\n
O’Shea wisely resists turning her documentary into either a celebration or outright condemnation of its subject.<\/p>\n
Her measured approach allows the contradictions to speak for themselves, although the film occasionally leaves the wider political implications of Chambers’ story unexplored.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most revealing twist comes when Chambers, unhappy with the finished documentary, offers to fund the entire production on the condition that it is never screened.<\/p>\n
O’Shea refuses – a development that neatly encapsulates the tension between his revolutionary ideals and his instinct to exercise control.<\/p>\n
At once thought-provoking, unsettling and surprisingly revealing, All About the Money succeeds not because it fully explains Chambers, but because it exposes the extraordinary power that wealth affords him, even in his attempts to reject it.<\/p>\n
All About the Money is on limited release in Irish cinemas from 30 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens when an heir to one of America’s wealthiest families decides to use his fortune to dismantle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-671339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}