Gen­er­a­tion Wealth – first look review

Lau­ren Green­field has been doc­u­ment­ing the glob­al obses­sion with excess for a long time now. From the despon­dent rich kids of Bev­er­ly Hills to inpa­tients at an eat­ing dis­or­der clin­ic, she’s made her name doc­u­ment­ing money’s impact on soci­ety and anthro­pol­o­gy both in pho­tos and films, from 2006’s THIN to 2012’s The Queen of Ver­sailles. In Gen­er­a­tion Wealth, she turns her cam­era inwards, reflect­ing on her own obses­sion which has evolved from a pass­ing inter­est into a 25-year vocation.

The sub­jects of Greenfield’s film are the var­i­ous peo­ple (col­leagues, you could say) she has met over the course of her career. From baby beau­ty queen Eden Wood, star of the hit real­i­ty show Tod­dlers & Tiaras, to FBI Most Want­ed fraud­ster Flo­ri­an Homm, each par­tic­i­pant appears relaxed and can­did thanks to the rap­port the direc­tor has built up with them. ​“Does Har­vard Busi­ness School teach you to be a good per­son?” she asks Flo­ri­an. He laughs before reply­ing, ​“No, we’re fine-tuned to rule the world.”

Although only briefly touched upon, Green­field also ref­er­ences the curi­ous case of for­mer Com­mu­nist coun­tries such as Rus­sia and Chi­na rapid­ly turn­ing to ram­pant con­sumerism. She posits they’ve been influ­enced by the increased con­sump­tion of West­ern films and tele­vi­sion and the rapid expan­sion of lux­u­ry goods into for­eign mar­kets, but it’s only a fleet­ing moment in a doc­u­men­tary packed with lines of inquiry that are wor­thy of a doc­u­men­tary all of their own.

At cer­tain points the film calls to mind Adam McKay’s The Big Short for its snap­py approach to explain­ing com­plex finan­cial terms. But instead of focus­ing on the mon­ey, Green­field is con­cerned with who has it (and who doesn’t). She speaks to rap­pers, celebri­ty off­spring, a for­mer porn star and an ex-girl­friend of Don­ald Trump turned Las Vegas par­ty plan­ner, exam­in­ing the real­i­ty of what mon­ey can (and can’t) buy.

Arguably the most inter­est­ing part of Gen­er­a­tion Wealth is Greenfield’s exam­i­na­tion of her own life, and how her pur­suit of a career in pho­tog­ra­phy and doc­u­men­tary has impact­ed upon her fam­i­ly. She inter­views her young sons and her par­ents, attempt­ing to under­stand how her upbring­ing paved the way for her adult­hood, and what she’s passed on to her own children.

While the film’s mes­sage about the dan­ger­ous nature of unbri­dled cap­i­tal­ism has been heard before, and the whole­some refrain that the best things in life are free is sim­i­lar­ly cliché, this is nonethe­less an enter­tain­ing and engag­ing watch.