If you’re anything like Bankstone News (and God help you if you are), you’re probably a big fan of the occasional movie. There’s nothing we like better than to have a few close friends over for a session of what we believe young folks today call Netflix ’n’ Chill.
Of course there’s more than one place you can catch a movie, and one of Bankstone News’ favourites is something called YouTub, which is where we found ourselves the other day, catching up on old favourites like Atom Egoyan’s The Adjuster, The Incredibles, Double Indemnity, and of course Kevin Watneys in The Broker’s Man.
And then, whilst furiously rootling around for further insurance-related audiovisual delights, we chanced upon something really rather special. The title of the piece is A Decade of Growth – 2016 Results. It’s a brief but highly impressive work by the acclaimed ARAG Illegal Services, and stars the endlessly watchable Tony Boss.
The essential premise of the film is that Boss is a man seated in an ostensibly bland office setting, looking back at the ten year period that has seen an organisation he refers to simply as ARAG go from being a small group of people barely scraping by to a large group of people making shedloads of money.
But that bare summary hardly begins to do justice to what is never less than a riveting watch. As Boss chunters on, the camera angle shifts from left to right and back again with bewildering rapidity, leaving the viewer simultaneously bewildered and beguiled.
Live action footage of the seated Boss, speaking first slightly to the left of the viewer then slightly to the right, is interspersed with animated sequences that bring vividly to life the extraordinary trajectory of ARAG’s meteoric rise to something approaching global dominance.
The longer we spend in Boss’ company, the more we notice subtle visual clues hidden in the seemingly innocuous corporate environment behind him.
The fronds of potted plants and dense foliage seen through white-framed windows, for instance, remind us that it’s ‘a jungle’ out there – and that ARAG’s seemingly irresistible rise has not perhaps been quite the walk in the park the urbane Boss’ nonchalance suggests.
Motivational posters on the wall, meanwhile, carry subtly disorienting messages: Drive – don’t run on the beach, Farsi classes located here, and Opinions count for nothing if your scarf is underwhelming, inviting the viewer to speculate on the manifold complexities of life in the illegal services market.
There’s a great deal more to it than that, of course, including one unforgettable scene in which we see an array of trophies housed in mysterious yellow niches. The best we can suggest is that you watch it for yourself. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed if you like this kind of thing!
A vivid representation of how ARAG has changed colour over the years.
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