Film
The Yes Men Fix the World
- Comedy
- Strange
Two activist pranksters infiltrate corporate conferences and media platforms by impersonating executives, staging elaborate hoaxes that expose corporate malfeasance and environmental negligence. It's gleeful, fast-paced agitprop—part caper, part political critique—that trades on the sheer audacity of the con and the moments when powerful people realize they've been played. For anyone suspicious of institutions and hungry for justice served cold.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy practical political mischief, where a straight-faced con becomes a tool for exposing corporate hypocrisy and you laugh while being quietly angered.
Skip it if you prefer documentaries that hold back their own opinion, since this one is openly partisan and sides plainly with its pranksters from start to finish.
What it asks of you: It runs under ninety minutes and mostly stays brisk, asking you to sit with a comic caper and then with the serious points it leaves behind, with little in between.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Super Size Me2004
A similarly structured investigation into corporate deception that uses personal immersion and visual proof to expose how industry interests override public health. Bowling, cheerfulness, and mounting dread.
But The argument feels somewhat dated now, and the filmmaker's body becomes the subject in ways that can feel self-aggrandizing.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room2005
Documentary forensics of a massive corporate con told with crisp editing and real footage of executives lying under oath. It has the dark satisfaction of watching a scheme unravel, with stakes that matter.
But Less funny and more deliberately chilling than The Yes Men. If you want laughter, this will disappoint.
The Central Park Five2012
Ken Burns and Sarah Burns excavate how institutions—media, police, courts—conspired to convict innocent teenagers. It's an indictment delivered through meticulous evidence, devastating and clear-eyed.
But Harrowing subject matter that resists irony or catharsis. Heavy in a way the Yes Men's work deliberately isn't.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Yes Men Fix the World
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Age of Stupid2009
Both are 2009 films that use the machinery of media—hoax and narrative—to make climate crisis impossible to look away from.
Made the same year, this climate documentary abandons lecturing for theatrical narrative: a man in 2055 watches archival footage and asks why we knew and did nothing. It's mournful where The Yes Men is merry, but shares the fury.
But The framing device feels heavy-handed, and the speculative future element undercuts the urgency of the present-tense evidence.
More like this (5)
An Inconvenient Truth2006
Gore's PowerPoint-as-cinema tackles the same environmental stakes the Yes Men lampoon. Visually inventive and genuinely alarming, it proves a documentary can be compelling without pranks.
But Dated in its optimism and production style. Some of its specific predictions have aged poorly, which undermines the urgency.
The Corporation2003
A sprawling intellectual demolition of corporate personhood, using interviews, clips, and animation to prove the system itself is the problem. Angry, rigorous, absolutely necessary.
But It's a lecture that runs two hours and doesn't always trust the audience to follow complex economic argument.
Pump2014
A documentary about America's oil dependence that's sneakier and funnier than you'd expect. It finds the human stories in policy, and the absurdities that hide in plain sight.
But Less well-known and less comprehensive than other environmental docs. Some viewers will want deeper technical analysis.
The Invisible War2012
An investigation into military sexual assault that uses testimony, institutional records, and personal story to expose how power protects perpetrators. Furious and clear.
But Trauma-heavy and genuinely difficult. The personal suffering is real, which means it resists the cathartic payoff some viewers need.
Bowling for Columbine2002
Michael Moore's most playful investigation into gun culture, fear, and corporate complicity. It's polemic as performance, with moments of genuine surprise and some real interviews that sting.
But Moore's tactics are as much a part of the film as the arguments, and if those tactics feel manipulative to you, the whole project will feel compromised.
People
Cast
Andy BichlbaumSelf- Mike BonannoSelf
Reggie WattsSelf
Directing
- Andy BichlbaumDirector
- Kurt EngfehrDirector
- Mike BonannoDirector
Writing
- Andy BichlbaumIdea
- Mike BonannoIdea
- Andy BichlbaumScreenplay
- Mike BonannoScreenplay
Recommended by
The Corporation, Wanderlust, Water & Power: A California Heist, Our Brand Is Crisis, Bananas!*, Live Nude Girls Unite!, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, Life and Debt, The Money Masters, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Vicky Donor, The Big One, Yes Man, The Gig Is Up, The Shock Doctrine, The Facebook Dilemma, Orwell Rolls in His Grave, This Changes Everything, Who Killed the Electric Car?, The Campaign, WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, The Big Fix, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, PBS News, The Godmother