It is impossible to talk about consumerist films without remembering the romantic comedy “Becky Bloom's Consumer Delusions”. Based on the series of books by Sophie Kinsella, the film is a faithful portrayal of the amount of problems that a person addicted to shopping can acquire.
Vain, ambitious, envious, sadistic and consumerist are adjectives that well define the protagonist of the film “American Psycho”, a true classic of the early 2000s. Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the feature has a weight cast, which includes Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto and Reese Witherspoon.
The central theme, obviously, is the mental disorder of Patrick Bateman, the central character of the plot. However, there are several criticisms of capitalism, including the way the protagonist uses his luxury items to satisfy himself.
Despite being riddled with stereotypes, it is one of the most acclaimed films of the 90s by teenagers. With several young and wealthy characters who star in numerous scenes of consumption, one of the main messages conveyed by history is the erroneous feeling that consumerism can be the solution for many problems.
Directed by the American Hal Hartley, the film takes place in the near future, where the law of the market prevails in the world and consumers are treated like true kings. Also, people are rated according to their sexual performance. The great curiosity of the plot is that, at the same time that Jack Bell creates the ideas, he leads the resistance movement against them.
One of the greatest classics of world cinema. Clube da Luta is a milestone in many ways. David Fincher's film goes far beyond the approach of schizophrenia, portraying issues of consumerism and people's relationship with what they have.
The documentary deals with an important issue, directly related to consumerism. Planned obsolescence, which lends the work its title, consists of the practice, adopted by manufacturers of the most diverse products, of stipulating expiration dates for durable goods. This makes the useful life of things less and less, generating serious consequences for human beings and the environment.
The comedy directed by the Coen brothers is a portrait of the “American way of life”. The president of a large company commits suicide and because of the frames of one of the owners, who intending to lower the company's share price, a clumsy messenger ends up taking over presidency.
What the saboteur did not foresee is that he would have a brilliant idea, responsible for causing a huge wave of consumerism among Americans, the hula hoop.
Swede Erik Gandini, responsible for directing the documentary, traveled the world to show how excessive consumption is present in several nations, causing great damage to several societies.
The documentary promotes an important reflection on issues that, most of the time, do not even cross the minds of consumers. “The Story of Things” details the five stages of the economy: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. And that's not all, it analyzes the impacts they can cause on human beings, nature and societies.
The film starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried takes place in a dystopian future where people stop aging at age 25. Time becomes a bargaining chip and everyone starts to have a biological clock on their arm, negotiating the days and years of life they still have left. In addition to being a matter of survival, individuals use time to obtain Luxury items.
Since 2017, Brazil prohibits advertising aimed at children under 12 years of age. However, for many years the advertising industry aimed at children was very profitable. After all, convincing a child is theoretically much easier than convincing an adult. The Brazilian film shows how children were impacted by this type of advertising and what damage it caused.
Ilha das Flores is a Brazilian short film produced in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, by filmmaker Jorge Furtado. Considered a classic, the film uses acidic language to make us reflect on the unequal relationships that the economy generates in human beings. It is considered by the Brazilian Association of Film Critics (Abraccine) as one of the 100 best Brazilian films of all time.
