Unity Review: Passionate

Shaun Monson’s “Unity” is a gut-punch for the entire human race – a documentary that looks at our species’ capacity for evil while analyzing just how we can reverse the damage done to each other and the world around us. Collecting a battalion of A-list talent – Monson uses powerful images and even more powerful voices to deliver what is a documentary that’ll have you looking at what are you doing to make the world a better place.

Separated into different chapters – “Unity” dissects spirituality and ideology. It is not a traditional documentary – what that means is there is no real story or original footage, Monson uses stock footage and a cast of A-listers that’ll make you think you’re watching a Pixar movie with all of the famous voices that pop in and out of the film. This approach is unsettling at first, feeling eerily like a movie you’d watch in middle school when your teacher wasn’t feeling up to teach – however, by the end of the piece, you do get Monson’s message and it sticks.

Where “Unity” works best is showing the audience just how messed up as a species we all are – tackling war, politics and even the food industry, the film holds a mirror up and asks “Why?!?” Why with our capacity for love and compassion we choose to constantly make the mistake of building borders between each other. The answer? Ego.

The solution Monson’s film suggests is an evolution. No, not a physical evolution – but a philosophical one. Compassion must eclipse the ego.

One the surface it is a fairly simple solution. A solution that makes you go “well, duh.” But as the film goes on and you witness how many times humanity has made the same mistakes, disregarding others for our own personal gain, you quickly realize that this solution is not so easy. And what seems like just a shift in thinking is an actual evolution as the film suggests.

The cast as previously stated is pretty stacked. Dr. Dre, Tom Hiddleston, Ben Kingsley, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard and many more all lend their voices to narrate the film. Outside of the fact these names put butts in seats, their involvement in a project that so drenched in spirituality really sells the thesis of the film, unity – if all of these powerful people from different walks of life can come together for the idea of togetherness, why can’t we as a species do the same?

All in all, “Unity” is solid– its message more than compensates for the lack original footage. It may not incite the fervor a documentary like “Blackfish” did, but is a conversational piece.