A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism” (2025).
Full title: The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& how it came to control your life)
I was recently sent a screener for this film – “The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism”, directed by Peter D. Hutchison and featuring George Monbiot. This has been doing the rounds at some film festivals and (at the time of writing) I see is available to rent on Apple TV+. It’s certainly a talking point. I watched it once and then, because I needed a second opinion, I called in my clever wife, the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man (BA History, with source-analytical skills I can only dream of). Well!!! I don’t think I’ve seen her as angry about a film in a very long time!! “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before” she spluttered… and this was not in a good way!
Like it or loathe it, you are likely to have an opinion on it. Our speaker in this film, George Monbiot, describes himself as a “professional troublemaker”. At least in this family, he does his job very well!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism” Plot:
This is effectively a lecture by George Monbiot of his (unchallenged) views on the impact of Neoliberalism on today’s society. It is a talk illustrated by a range of striking images: some real and some AI-generated. It is based on a book (with the same name) written by Monbiot and published by Penguin.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This film has not yet been rated by the BBFC, but given some of its doom-laden prophecies I would have thought that a 12A would be appropriate.)
Talent:
Starring: George Monbiot.
Directed by: Peter D. Hutchison & Lucas Sabean.
Written by: Peter D. Hutchison & George Monbiot.
Running Time: 1h 15m.
“The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism” Summary:
Positives:
- There are a heap of interesting ideas in here, but few of them are followed through to enough depth.
- Some of the AI images used are striking and added to the narrative for me.
Negatives:
- It’s a polemic: none of Monbiot’s statements are challenged in any way. Where’s the balance?
- The AI representations of some historical figures is distractingly poor. Can you trust anything?
Review of “The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism”:
I need to be careful I don’t make myself a platform here for vitriolic online abuse!
When I make any sort of political comment in my film reviews I open up myself to be shouted at by one side or the other. Recently it’s been any comment I make about the orange buffoon overseas: there’s always going to be some MAGAt showering abuse on me in the comments section, seemingly unaware that my negative view is shared by about 90% of the world’s population! Sometimes, I manage to be attacked by BOTH sides for the same post! Most recently, it was for a flurry of comments I received for Asif Kapadia’s ‘documentary’ film “2073“: I was accused of being a fascist by some in wanting at least some balance in the material being presented AND by being “far left” by others!
I may be digging the same hole with this review…. but I will try to keep my own personal views on the material in check and focus on the structure of the film rather than the content.
Some interesting ideas.
We open with George Monbiot walking into an empty studio and taking a chair to talk to us. So far, so TED-talk. He then presents, over a series of 14 chapters, his views on “Neoliberalism” and its impact on the structure of today’s world. “What is Neoliberalism?” you might ask (as indeed I did). Chapter 1 covers this off. Neoliberalism is defined as “The extension of competitive markets into all areas of life, including the economy, politics and society”. Monbiot paraphrases this as “Capitalism on steroids”, setting ‘competition’ as the “defining feature of humankind”. In this model, “inequality” is seen a a good thing allowing the rich to get richer and richer, promoting massive increases in prosperity that then, in theory, trickles down to the masses below.
There is then an interesting analysis of what Monbiot claims was the birthplace of capitalism on the island of Madeira in 1420… the plundering of the island for madeira (“wood” in Portuguese). This was for Portuguese use but shortly afterwards for the fuelling of the huge slave-driven industry of sugar production on the island: a process that ultimately resulted in the death of the industry from deforestation. As Monbiot claims, capitalism results in a cycle of “Boom; Bust; Quit”: as islands are exploited to death, the circus moves on to new territories.
Thatcherism and Reaganism.
There’s some rather dry history presented on the origins of Neoliberalism in Paris in 1938, based around two influential figures – Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. But then we move on to the broader implementation of the philosophy in the 1980’s with the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Here, the abstract becomes more relatable for those of us who did live through that period. Society DID significantly shift in terms of the things that ‘seemed important’. It was the rise of the yuppie trader and “Loadsamoney”. As Monbiot points out, once these right-wing policies came in, they were not then later rejected by the opposition parties, but embraced and extended by ‘New Labour’ in the UK. It was like society’s genie was out of the bottle and there was no putting it back in.
To evil-oligarchs and Global Environmental disaster
We then wander in subsequent chapters into the rise of tech-bros and oligarchs around the world and how neoliberalism is the root of all evil, embracing everything from a rise in mental illness to global warming. The linkage of capitalism to environmental disaster is an obvious one, but not one that has been really pointed out before: it is “Boom; Bust; Quit” on a planetary scale. With, you feel, his tongue a little in his cheek, Monbiot points out that it is no coincidence that the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are so focused on getting off-planet. When Madeira is ransacked, you look for somewhere new to exploit!
Where’s the balance?
So, to reiterate the comments I started this review with, there ARE some interesting ideas presented here. But there is also no check-and-balance to anything. It is not a ‘documentary’; like “2073” was, it is a polemic with Monbiot preaching, completely unchecked, about how this is the gospel truth. And, for some of it, possibly much of it, he might well be right. But there are more than once or twice that you think “hang on a minute… is that true?”.
For example, in one section, Monbiot expounds on the ISDS (no, not the International Sheepdog Society…. the Investor–state dispute settlement system. This is (from Wiki) a “set of rules through which states (sovereign nations) can be sued by foreign investors for certain state actions affecting the foreign direct investments (FDI) of that investor”. The inference made is that these powerful financial bodies can, and do, over-rule democratic governments if they don’t like things that impact their revenue stream. But an example given is the restrictions on the sale of cigarettes, and I thought “hang on… we DID do that in the UK”. I wanted to know specifics of the cases that the ISDS did uphold in this way.
But before we get a chance to contemplate or rigorously analyse an idea, we are off – whooosh – onto a new chapter and yet another set of ideas to baffle us. I felt that a “less is more” approach would have worked better here: focus in on some of the really interesting angles (the impact of societal changes on mental health, for example) and do those in more depth.
Who can tell?
So how can we know what is right and what is creative use of data here? And the answer is, we can’t. If this had been a typical documentary we would have had Monbiot as just one of the speakers and a bunch of other academics expressing possibly conflicting views to allow us, as the audience, to form an educated view. As it is, Monbiot might as well have been filmed standing on a box at Speaker’s Corner preaching to a Hyde Park crowd for all the balance we got here. This is what made the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man so unhappy: “it’s just a rant” she fumed.
Not just a TED talk, but an illustrated TED talk.
The film opens with a title: “The use of Artificial Intelligence in this film is an attempt to turn the tables, and employ technology against capitalism”. I’m not quite sure what this is trying to get at. “Turn the tables”… in what way? I agree that having 75 minutes of Monbiot as a talking head would have been dull and the use of AI-generated images to illustrate the points made I personally found to be quite entertaining. (The illustrious Mrs Movie Man really didn’t appreciate these, especially the more abstract AI art.) There is also a certain degree of propaganda in the choice of images used. All the finance leaders are shown as slightly evil-looking smirking men and all of the ‘low-level’ consumers are wide-eyed with confusion and fear.
The graphics also introduce us to a bunch of real-life people. This is a mixture of photographs and AI-generated caricatures, some of which definitely have one foot in The Twilight Zone. Both Ronald Reagan and Boris Johnson are particularly unrealistic.
We also utilise to excess that rather ‘uncanny valley’ thing of ‘mobilising’ old sepia photos such that the subjects turn their heads, smile, scowl, etc. The problem with all of this type of AI trickery is that you wonder what else has been manipulated. The photographic images of ‘events’ perhaps? The datagrams being shown perhaps? If the message is “AI means you can’t trust anything?” then that is something I can wholeheartedly agree with. But in a ‘documentary’ trying to sell you a line, it’s not a good move. If anything, AI has “turned the tables” on the film’s credibility to some extent.
Some nice movie snippets.
Being a movie nerd, some inserts in the talk that I did enjoy were snippets of classic movies. We get brief scenes from Lon Chaney’s 1925 classic portrayal of “The Phantom of the Opera”; Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic “Metropolis”; 1939’s Jimmy Stewart classic “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” and 1940’s searing Charlie Chaplin parody of Hitler, “The Great Dictator”.
Summary Thoughts on “The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism”
This is a cerebral but intensely interesting film. Although, in my opinion, deeply flawed in its attempt to be a ‘documentary’, it did have me thinking hard about the subject matter being presented. Is it a “black mirror on reality” or a “socialist rant” or something in between? I will leave you to watch the film at some point and make up your own mind.
I found the film difficult to rate, so I took the middle ground and gave it 3*s. (The Illustrious Mrs Movie Man said she would give it 2 stars since, even though she hated it, it did provoke some interesting thoughts.)
The director and co-writer is Peter D. Hutchison who was also behind “The Cure for Hate: Bearing Witness to Auschwitz” (also from Eat The Moon Films) which was far more balanced and more my cup of tea. But it firmly cements Hutchison as a documentary maker that knows how to pick interesting and provocative subjects.
By the way, the ideas presented here are also available in book form, published by Penguin. In what can only be described as being intensely ironic, the book is available on that high-alter of capitalism – Amazon – here.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLNRzqCpCE.
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