Let’s not mince words: director Sinéad O’Shea’s documentary “All About the Money” is a story about a jerk, which makes it as interesting as it is hard to like. The subject, Fergie Chambers, is a literal billionaire heir that tries to build a communist revolutionary base in rural Massachusetts to take down the capitalist system he was born into. It already sounds strange, and the documentary just keeps getting stranger from there.
Heir to the Cox Enterprises media empire, Chambers is a self-proclaimed communist with a seemingly endless ability to fund big, chaotic ideas. He believes that America’s wealth inequality is deeply destructive, which is something that’s hard to disagree with. The irony is that he’s also the embodiment of that inequality, and the film never lets him off the hook for it. Chambers comes across as delusional, impulsive, and often deeply unpleasant, with very little concern for how his actions ripple outward. He’s also someone shaped by real trauma, from an emotionally absent upbringing, being institutionalized as a child, and a long history of addiction. None of this excuses his behavior, but it does complicate it.
O’Shea clearly understands how polarizing Chambers is, and that tension is the movie’s fuel. One minute he’ll say something jaw-droppingly obnoxious or reckless, and the next he’ll land on an observation about power or exploitation that’s rooted in uncomfortable truths. You certainly won’t end up liking him, but you do end up understanding how money can warp both intention and consequence.
The film doesn’t stay locked on Chambers, as O’Shea spends meaningful time with the people living and working at the Massachusetts Marxist-Leninist commune, including farming couple Jade and Reggie and activist Paige, who served time in prison following a protest that pushed the group into the national spotlight. These sections ground the film and expand it beyond one rich guy’s ideological spiral, showing how real people get swept into someone else’s grand experiment.
“All About the Money” isn’t just about radical politics and rich jerks. It’s about the impossible contradictions of trying to dismantle a system while benefiting enormously from it, and how concentrated wealth distorts even the most anti-capitalist dreams.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 