Radical privilege is the subject of All About the Money, a documentary about the absurd finances of James Cox Chambers, the beneficiary of one of America’s most wealthy families. James buys moments. He even tried to buy this very film out from under the filmmaker, so it wouldn’t come to an audience. It has come to an audience, however, and the twists and turns of James’ richly monied life, where creating a Revolutionary Communist base in Massachusetts is just another diversion, where the folks brought in may face the consequences, but as always, James buys his way out.
That’s how James treats anything. Friendships. Relationships. Converting to Islam. Getting divorced, remarried, and divorced again within a month. Buying a professional soccer team cause they have ties to Hamas and abandoning them just as quickly.
The guy is a natural shit stirrer. A Marxist with infinite wealth. His wealth is such, he says, that it will continue to grow just by the pure nature of how much interest it accrues. So money becomes James’ plaything, and he uses it flagrantly, to fund whatever wave of social consciousness he is presently riding.
Everything is performative. Whatever actions James takes at any moment is the action which draws the most attention to himself. Which makes him an eccentric, ever-moving target for a documentary that just follows his peculiar adventure, for as long as being filmed still feels like an adequate way to fulfill his soft ego.
There is the funny tension at the center here, a Marxist with unlimited disposable income, an adherent to absolute equality, who has benefitted more than anyone from the capitalist hellhole he so often fights against, with his money.
It’s both good and weird as hell. James adheres to political concepts that strain directly against his lifestyle. Why doesn’t he just give away a bulk of his fortunes? Because, he says, then he wouldn’t continue amassing endless wealth to give away. Also, because it would end the performance, and the performance is the point.