The Yes Men Fix the World

Mike Bonanno and Tucson’s own Andy Bichlbaum are known collectively as the Yes Men, and this thought-provoking follow-up to the 2003 documentary that introduced us to their prankster activism continues their campaign against corporate greed. This film observes as the Yes Men build fake company Web sites and then field invitations to events by groups that probably now devote a bit more time to background checks. In the liberal vein of Michael Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen, Bichlbaum and Bonanno pack their huge stones into cheap suits to go introduce ridiculous “initiatives” by companies like Halliburton and Exxon. But the most entertaining hoax here is reserved for Dow Chemical, whose stockholders freaked out when Bichlbaum went on the BBC and announced Dow’s nonexistent plans for financial restitution to the victims of the devastating 1984 environmental disaster in Bhopal, India. Though most of the interviewees don’t have to try terribly hard to look foolish, this is clearly Bichlbaum and Bonanno’s show, with ignorant sound bites sandwiched between silly stock animation and double-take reactions. It can be argued whether the Yes Men are doing more harm than good with these stunts, but, in the words of one Bhopal activist, it’s “totally worth it.”