Generation Wealth

Name: Generation Wealth
Genre: Documentary
Released: July 20, 2018
Duration: 106 min
Rating: 53
Cast: Bobby Strauser, Bret Easton Ellis, Chris Hedges, DJ Esco, Florian Homm

2018

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Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Ratings

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Ratings

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Generation Wealth: Photographers Lens

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Movie Details & Credits

Evergreen Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2018 | Not Rated

Starring: Bobby Strauser, Bret Easton Ellis, Chris Hedges, DJ Esco, Florian Homm, George W. Bush, Jaqueline Siegel, Kate Hudson, Lauren Greenfield, Limo Bob, Michael Douglas, Paris Cronin, Robert Strauser, Tiffany Masters

Summary: For the past 25 years acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles, Thin, kids+money, #likeagirl) has travelled the world, documenting with ethnographic precision and an artist’s sensitivity a vast range of cultural movements and moments. Yet, after so much seeking and searching, she realized that much ofFor the past 25 years acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles, Thin, kids+money, #likeagirl) has travelled the world, documenting with ethnographic precision and an artist’s sensitivity a vast range of cultural movements and moments. Yet, after so much seeking and searching, she realized that much of her work pointed at one uniting phenomenon: wealth culture. With her new film, Generation Wealth, she puts the pieces of her life’s work together for in an incendiary investigation into the pathologies that have created the richest society the world has ever seen. Spanning consumerism, beauty, gender, body commodification, aging and more, Greenfield has created a comprehensive cautionary tale about a culture heading straight for the cliff’s edge. Generation Wealth, simultaneously a deeply personal journey, rigorous historical essay, and raucously entertaining expose, bears witness to the global boom-bust economy, the corrupted American Dream and the human costs of capitalism, narcissism and greed.… Expand

Director: Lauren Greenfield

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 106 min

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Critic Reviews

Vince Mancini

Aug 2, 2018

Generation Wealth is, as Greenfield surely intended, a valuable and necessary work of cultural anthropology, that entertains even as it horrifies. It’s an important watch that never feels like homework. Read full review

Nikki Baughan

Feb 21, 2018

The result is both a compelling, damning cultural observation and testament to Greenfield’s own visual artistry. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Jul 20, 2018

Greenfield wraps up this compulsively watchable movie with observations of family love and some of its characters striving for redemption and/or an honest living. But she doesn’t quite dissolve the bitterness of the pill. Because it really can’t be. Read full review

Peter Debruge

Jan 27, 2018

Though it can sometimes feel invasive when a documentarian includes his or her own voice in the finished cut, Greenfield’s presence is essential here as we observe the rapport she’s established with people whom it’s difficult for us not to judge, and whom she views with all the complexity her portraits suggest. Read full review

Alan Scherstuhl

Jul 18, 2018

By turns, Greenfield’s survey is alarming, hilarious, and indulgent, sometimes strained and a little dull, prone to overstatement and an abuse of synecdoche. Read full review

Gary Thompson

Aug 2, 2018

Greenfield makes an ambitious attempt to tie all of these things together as symptoms of capitalism gone wrong in Generation Wealth, although her thesis is weakly argued, and thinly sourced – the movie often turns out to be a curiously insular polling of family, friends, and high school and college classmates. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Jul 19, 2018

This new film, though, is mainly appalling, and not instructively so. It’s all over the place, to the point of inducing numbness or suffocation. In the end it comes out in favor of love, which is good, but getting there may leave you glassy-eyed, unless you’re deeply into bling porn. Read full review

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User Reviews

Pronsias

Aug 16, 2018

After watching 'Generation Wealth' last night, I texted my boyfriend and struggled to find words other than "brutal", "disturbing", "mind-blowing". No other documentary or movie I've seen has ever made me cry the way this one has. After the 2016 election I was stunned, constantly askingAfter watching 'Generation Wealth' last night, I texted my boyfriend and struggled to find words other than "brutal", "disturbing", "mind-blowing". No other documentary or movie I've seen has ever made me cry the way this one has. After the 2016 election I was stunned, constantly asking myself, "how did we get here?" This film answers that question for me. Between that, and the outright blatant misogyny that our consumer culture is so dependent on, it's touched me to the core. In these troubled times, when our "leader" is instilling a deep mistrust of journalists and journalism, and we're increasingly unable to tell fact from fiction, I see the value of clearly representing facts more than I ever have in the past. Generation Wealth does that. If I could mandate that every single American watch it, I would.… Expand

4 of 4 users found this helpful40

Brent_Marchant

Aug 5, 2018

An intriguing look at how the core values that once defined America (and much of the world) have come to be corrupted by greed, self-importance and instant gratification -- and how the unsatisfying results of those dubious qualities never amount to enough. This ambitious undertaking covers aAn intriguing look at how the core values that once defined America (and much of the world) have come to be corrupted by greed, self-importance and instant gratification -- and how the unsatisfying results of those dubious qualities never amount to enough. This ambitious undertaking covers a lot of ground but, unfortunately, not always in a coherent approach, one that would have benefited from a little more objectivity and a little less intrusiveness on the part of the filmmaker inserting her own story into the narrative. A noble effort, to be sure, but one definitely in need of some retooling.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

TVJerry

Aug 14, 2018

Photographer/filmmaker Lauren Greenfield examines the power of money by focusing on a few people who are driven to the narcissistic standards that our society has created for wealth and beauty. This is NOT a dazzling display of riches and luxury, but an examination of a few people who havePhotographer/filmmaker Lauren Greenfield examines the power of money by focusing on a few people who are driven to the narcissistic standards that our society has created for wealth and beauty. This is NOT a dazzling display of riches and luxury, but an examination of a few people who have been affected by their own desires. Greenfield tries to bring this home (literally) with a comparison of her own dedication to her career. Not really that interesting. While there are fascinating stories and plenty of social commentary, the outrageous opulence isn't the focus. Her last doc (The Queen of Versailles) did it better.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

duddy5698

Jul 23, 2018

Generation Wealth is a well made film. It is so disturbing you can't enjoy it. This movie made me sick. Well made, but don't see this. You will throw up.

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

evildoomfoot

Oct 23, 2018

this is a fascinating subject that the film loses sight of 20 minutes in, it then proceeds to be an advertisement for the film maker along with some punchy emotional bits to make it feel like you are watching something more coherent than what this is. This movie was made to get youthis is a fascinating subject that the film loses sight of 20 minutes in, it then proceeds to be an advertisement for the film maker along with some punchy emotional bits to make it feel like you are watching something more coherent than what this is. This movie was made to get you emotionally fired up witch makes it very easy to miss the fact that it's not a good film.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

PleaseBeeGood

Aug 12, 2018

Critics are giving this film mixed reviews: 'A' for effort; 'D' for execution; and 'F' for depth. Mostly, I agree. But critics are missing a glaring, unseemly trait of the film. Above all else, Lauren Greenfield's 'Generation Wealth' is a one hour and 46 minute advertisement for LaurenCritics are giving this film mixed reviews: 'A' for effort; 'D' for execution; and 'F' for depth. Mostly, I agree. But critics are missing a glaring, unseemly trait of the film. Above all else, Lauren Greenfield's 'Generation Wealth' is a one hour and 46 minute advertisement for Lauren Greenfield. It screams narcissism. There isn't anything inherently wrong with self examination on camera, it's just that Greenfield comes up empty. If you believe, as the filmmaker does, that 'money can't buy you love' is an earth-shattering epiphany worthy of a feature-length film, then you absolutely ought to pay the $12 fine to watch her navel gaze. Better still, cough up the $75 retail price for Greenfield's 500-page companion book, coincidently titled -- 'Generation Wealth.' (Why yes, it did take her 500 pages to warn against the excesses of consumer capitalism. Irony? Hypocrisy? Obliviousness?)

Ms. Greenfield has stated that she examines the extremes of a social phenomenon in order to understand it. She also adds, gymnastically, that this is not a film about the 'one percent'. What I saw were several vignettes of (mostly) wealthy people looking dumb or pathetic for their greed and ambition. Apparently, plain old middle class folks demonstrate greed and ambition in ways that aren't nearly as cinematic. Probably more accurately, the vast majority of us who do not occupy the highest or lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, could never leave the theater feeling good about ourselves if Greenfield hadn't offered up the low hanging fruit for us to bash.

If you've seen the film and consider my thoughts on it unnecessarily harsh, please consider Greenfield's immeasurably superior 2012 film, 'The Queen of Versailles.' What does 'Generation Wealth' add to her eloquent thesis on the perils of consumer capitalism articulated in the earlier film? Well, nothing.

If you considered the film 'eye-opening' or 'important', I can't help but think you've been sleepwalking. Wealthy people, like most other people, want more stuff. Greed and excess and narcissism are not novel. The 'American Dream' -- to the extent its meaning can be agreed upon -- is as elusive as it's always been. Nothing to see here but bling porn and self-promotion of an artist's overstuffed retrospective.

I found 'Generation Wealth' an insulting vanity project that condescends to its audience by presenting simple explanations (disguised with an aura of profundity) for the complex set of circumstances it purports to depict. Especially insulting is the idea that the movie cares at all about a (never defined) generation and/or its relationship to wealth. Mostly the filmmaker needs an audience to assure her that her life's work has merit (by the way, much of it truly does); that her own obsession with fame, fortune, and adulation are genetic traits inherited from her mother; and that the time she missed from her sons' young lives was worth it. I almost felt foolish assuming that the film was meant for *my* edification and entertainment, and not *her* psychotherapy. For all Greenfield's garish self-indulgence, she neglects her audience by simply failing to deliver anything meaningful for us. It's not difficult to feel an odd kinship with her son Noah, who, when questioned about her absence makes clear "...the damage has already been done."… Expand

1 of 6 users found this helpful15

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