Brand: A Second Coming
“I’d rather you shoot my pets than release this film.” So Russell Brand is reported to have told director Ondi Timoner prior to a premiere from which he was conspicuously absent. One struggles to comprehend the comic’s reservations, however, given his evident egotism and the extent to which he’s deified by Brand: A Second Coming.
The documentary peddles a narrative in which Brand found himself disenchanted with the spiritually unfulfilling world of celebrity and instead decided to direct his energies toward political activism. If various talking heads are to be believed, he’s a taboo-busting iconoclast in the mould of Lenny Bruce, and it’s on this basis that his recent activity is considered. Viewers are free to contemplate the man’s motivations and psyche, but no more so than when watching his past body of work. Timoner seems reluctant to probe him and consequently offers little in the way of revelation. [Lewis Porteous]
Read our interview with A Second Coming's director, Ondi Timoner