YOU NEED THIS (Ryan Andrej Lough, 2025)

Brought to you by Adam McKay, former funny man and friend of Will Ferrrell, turned serious political satirist and friend of Will Ferrell, You Need This, tracks the history of consumerism in America, and it’s effect on the world around us.

It’s time to have some very serious and frank conversations about capitalism and environmental collapse. This film seeks to kick some of these conversations off. It highlights the real world adverse effects of consumerism; addiction to entertainment, death of community and the role of the artisan, forced labour, human trafficking and disastrous environmental effects just to name a few. The film is sprinkled with an array of talking head interviews with experts, these boffins know what they’re talking about, and my god it’s scary! It’s over for us folks! 

There’s a really interesting section on dreams, and the effects capitalism has on dreams. They dive into how corporations want to infiltrate our dreams with ads. How consumerism is seeping into the last frontier of autonomy, sleep. I’d love to have seen this idea explored more within the film as it is truly interesting when they touch upon it. 

I could see this film as the perfect way to introduce your family and friends to socio-environmental-political issues. If you’re already locked into politics in a meaningful way, the film might be mostly making points you probably already understand, it isn’t helped by the fact it’s message is usually repeated in several different ways, by several different experts, which is not-so-interesting.

The film is weaved together using voice over, it’s as light and funny as it can be while discussing eco-death. In between the talking-head style interviews and to give an image to the narration, the film uses a a lot of contemporary stock footage. It gets the point across and reflects the topics- if only being slightly uninspired, but one can imagine the focus of the filmmakers here wasn’t making a film that’s interesting to watch but instead they want you to focus on the facts and the message of the film.

On the other hand there’s some great use of archive footage. Its usage is very interesting and usually ironic, running parallel with the true history of America and capitalism the film is telling. At one point the narration tells us to watch Adam Curtis’ brilliant series Century of the Self, a film that delves into similar issues, perhaps if the film has employed a few of his visual techniques, it could have made it’s visuals just as interesting as it’s message.

The film tries to end on a high note, describing B-corps. They are corporations with a focus on people and environmentalism. The CEOs of these companies call on us to be ‘enlightened’, that we should be more than just a consumer. That we need to demand more from company’s, buy more thoughtfully and from local small businesses that pay the living wage. To think about your values before you buy something. One fella encourages the viewer to try working less like him in order to break your reliance on consumerism. Hrm… Hey, minimum wage workers, when you leave your hellish job, PLEASE try and consider what these rich folks have to say!

We kid. Of course we SHOULD do all these things, and we must try to, but the filmmakers and interviewees don’t acknowledge we may not have the (sorry for this) privilege to do so. Many people cannot simply elect to live outside of consumerist society, no matter how much they want to. Perhaps rather than blaming the sheeple consumer, name and shame some companies! Ultimately the film ends up offering very little in the way of solutions, it instead wants awareness. We’re aware, now what? 

When asked for solutions, the experts seem lost too. We’re fucked. 

There is of course one more things the film, of course, the film, rightfully, lectures us on environmentalism and the need within consumers for instant gratification caused out society; In fact these are the films main tenants…Yet it utilises Artificial intelligence imaging.

A.I. is known for it’s adverse environmental effects. According to the MIT Technology Review, ‘Generating one image takes as much energy as fully charging your smartphone, according to the study from researchers at the AI startup Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University.’

A.I. also simply reinforces the consumerist idea of getting what you want instantly while removing the worker from the equation.

A.I. is tool of capitalism, and perhaps it’s biggest sin, it’s ugly to look at! The film tells us that due to capitalist consumerism: community is being erased. Fast fashion and mega corporations have erased the artisan. What does A.I. do if not this? It’s usage only damages the integrity of the films messaging. And due to it’s negative effect on the environment, it literally gives the film a carbon footprint.

I’d say they didn’t mean nothing by it, but just to be safe I’ll spray a bottle of deodorant out my window tonight as revenge as we here at Best Boy despise Artificial Intelligence.