Culture Wars PLC

Directed by Richard Steele

2024

Brunosaurus Productions

Staffordshire director Richard Steele turns his satirical eye to ‘woke’ culture wars in his new short which sees the filmmaker tackle the hot topic within a mockumentary of real life.

Shot in a handheld interview style similar to Ricky Gervais’ The Office (no doubt intentionally given what is tackled later), we are introduced to an imagined business called Company Culture who specialise in “maximising traffic to websites”. And very quickly we are shown how they exploit online controversy to generate content, blog posts and replies to keep money coming in from ongoing arguments.

By stirring up the pot, the business attempts to increase engagement and at one point the film focuses on Tweets - often the hotbed platform of choice for those with the biggest, and often more extreme, viewpoints.

The subject matter the film takes a look at is interesting and relevant in today’s world for sure. Rather than against woke culter per se, the filmmaker delves into the phenomenon of the wider topic of counterfeit outrage and invented controversy. It possibly needs a more finely tuned message but it’s an honourable attempt to keep clear of the left-right culture war outright.

We see boardroom discussions and business meetings that explain to a new employee the workings of the company which allows the filmmaker to use a fly-on-the-wall style to get his message across. It’s a bit transparent at times as interviewees speak more of an essay than real dialogue though.

But despite this, the topic is engaging and the businesses’ goal to stoke “agitation” is a well-spotted reflection of online folk who throw around terms like ‘hidden narratives’ and ‘virtue signaling’. We also see behind the scenes clips of the business intentionally, and knowingly, take part in this practice.

At 25 minutes the unpolished nature of the film does sadly start to get a bit stale. The sound and visual style compound and I’m also not sure the narrative really warrants this screen time either. It’s a bit unwieldy, although kudos to the director for bringing my attention to the term “woke-flake” which made me chuckle.

Steele has emphasised this mockery in his previous films Local News Website Disorder and The Flaming Gazette and the filmmaker has already admitted it may be his last foray into similar themes. That seems like the best course of action as the films all have this certain tone and style and it would benefit Steele to dip toes into new techniques and topics. 

Variation can be a quality unto itself and the familiarity is somewhat a distraction here despite some sparse but well-used phone-shot viral video moments. The very recent Meta Mum also explores the online world yet did so with a more captivating perspective.

In the end, Steele is a local filmmaker who definitely enjoys to engage with political and social issues and is never afraid to put it at the forefront of his shorts. Yet despite the absorbing topic, the film could add a dash of subtlety. Perhaps even some Spinal Tap improvisation could work, as its heavy-handedness and overlong runtime can wear thin - but adding an irreverent tone does allow the two “sides” to engage with its thoughts. Although whilst it is shot in Stoke, like the topics it covers, I'm sure Culture Wars PLC will actually more than likely stoke some contentious squabbles itself.

★★½

2.5 / 5

Mike Sales