The Joneses

Year: 2009
Directed by: Derrick Borte
Written by: Randy T. Dinzler (story), Derrick Borte
Starring: Demi Moore, David Duchovny, Amber Heard
IMDB page & official trailer:

movie girl:

What if there was a marketing technique that involved pretending to be a member of the target group of consumers and showing-off products that the group would buy if influenced by your charming personality? The movie describes this scenario.

It presents a dream family from an advertiser's point of view – rich, charismatic, set to convince everyone they meet that what they have are the greatest products in the world. But what they really are is a business unit, a cell in a network of artificial families competing against each other and aiming at becoming an "icon", an inspiration for product design for the greatest brands.

Being part of the family is a difficult job because you have to hide your true feelings, values and personality and you also risk that your influence on the ones you tricked into buying stuff they don’t need will have bad consequences. And it has.

The film makes you think about what brands do to people that cannot afford them - they make them feel not good enough so they buy them to feel better about themselves, and then they accumulate debt and then descend into despair. Maybe what others have matters to much these days. And maybe brands should not be a condition for social acceptance.

Rating: 6

movie boy:

I started watching this movie with no high hopes, misjudging it from the beginning and to be honest, expecting for a laugh. When I finally realised this was not supposed to be a comedy, I started watching closely. David Duchovny was not so bad, Demi was... perfect and, must say, Amber Heard was that kind of girl that could have convinced me to buy something terribly expensive and totally useless.

And this is the exact point of this movie:to create perfection so that others would want to reach it and overcome it. In a world of mimetism in which people have other people to think for them, where they only agree or disagree, seduction is a very important component.

This could be interpreted as a reminder, as a protest or as an artistic documentary. The signals are very clear: we are living in a consumeristic society and the higher our social position, the higher the buying tendency. The trigger must simply direct you towards the right product and the competition spirit will do the rest. This is a lesson about marketing and how merciless it is, about how it understands human nature and how it responds by offering virtual rewards to what sometimes goes as far as to the supreme sacrifice. "If people want you, they'll want what you've got". Sounds familiar?

Rating: 5,8