Once upon a time there was a company named Enron. Or was it Memron? And the company headed so far south it hit the equator as it was battered by a series of scandals involving fraud, high-living executives who betrayed the dreams of stockholders and employees, and bankruptcy. But whatever happened to some of those employees. Could they and did they try to rise again?
What if some of them got together — not the fat, pampered executive “serving time” in a country-club-like prison, or the office politics-maven guy who is now head of the disgraced company and looking for the latest new thing, but just a bunch of suddenly broke employees who are looking for a get-rich-quick business (just like they thought Enron…I mean MEMRON…was!).
And what if they thought: what is something EVERYONE needs? And they realized: it’s AIR! How would they market it and how would they market it differently…and how could they create a demand or at least try to create a demand for their “brand.”
That’s the basic set up of Memron, Director and Writer Nancy Hower’s deliciously scathing and madcap take on the corporate world and the over-the-top people who often occupy it. Hower, who directs and writes the TBS series 10 Items Or Less, uses the “mockumentary” genre to lampoon the fate of the Memron executives serving their time in country clubs called prisons, the thirst of some employees to rebound from shattered dreams and bank accounts…and weaves a delicious tale of corporate positive affirmation and ruthlessness (that’s seen in the surprise ending which we won’t reveal to you).
Memron is an independent production, which means it’s done on a shoestring and relies on its cast’s comic abilities for its appeal — because much of it is improvised. The mockumentary genre is best typified by This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, and that superb NBC show The Office. Memron’s cast may not be A-list number one household names , but they are all-around wonderful and include Michael McShane (Office Space), Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black), Joey Slotnick (Nip/Tuck, Alias), Tim Bagley (Will & Grace) — and many others.
Memron lampoons several corporate life stereotypes: the rich, pampered and ever confident CEO who always seems to land on his heels; the star-crossed schlemiels in the trenches who aspire to be where a boss is but never get the breaks, don’t have the background, smarts or ruthlessness; and the young up-and-coming corporate predator hovering in the background to take advantage if someone else in business fails to fill an opening market. We won’t give more of it away here.
Interestingly, if you check reviews on the Internet, this fun and silly movie-with-a-point has gotten mixed reviews — and it’s a bum rap.
Some criticized it for not being as funny as other specific mockumentaries. But the POINT of this kind of film is much of it is improvised. Each mockumentary has its own pace and texture precisely because much of it is improvised. And Borat has become the new measure against which most other movies that rely on improvisation will be measured (even though some of Borat is a mean-spirited Candid Camera).
Others said some characters were too over-the-top. HUH? This is the kind of comedy that is often over-the-top. In comedic style Memron is closer to an extended Saturday Night Live or Mad TV sketch than a subtle spoof of a typical PBS documentary. It shows crazy, sometimes obnoxious people. (And who are BLOGGERS to complain about that?)
And then there’s another point some have made: it makes the workers look bad and spares the fat executive or other higher ups. Not really. The executives (in jail and out of jail) continue in their cocoons of moving in higher circles and enjoying greater privileges in their jet-set lives. And the film says nothing about all of the company’s workers: it focuses on a small group whose obsession with self-affirmation is perhaps matched only by the Bush administration’s policy-making sessions on the Iraq war. This group of former employees and former middle-managers get a vision, then whip themselves up to focus single-mindedly on it no matter what the outcome. They are already big (even though they’re not) because they say they are big.
The surprise ending is priceless. Memron will be of huge interest to satire buffs, those who love over-the-top television style sketch comedy, improvisation fans, students of comedy and those who’ve have pondered the Enron scandal’s events and tragedies but just want to lighten up a bit.
P.S. Memron deserves all of the film festival awards it received. Print out the few reviews that nit-picked, use your shredder Enron-style, then view it yourself.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.