Vice is Broke is streaming now on MUBI. Get 30 days free.
Once valued at almost $6 billion, Vice went from Montreal-based alt-punk ‘zine to a media empire over the course of three decades. But the documentary Vice is Broke, now streaming on MUBI, paints a completely different picture. Directed by author, producer, host, and chef Eddie Huang, Vice is Broke tracks the brand’s journey and tackles the question: how the hell did the darling of the indie sleaze era end up bankrupt?
Throughout its 101-minute runtime, Huang interviews Vice contributors from its earliest days to its many restructurings, who each have their own take on where things went wrong. Early issues of the print magazine saw its voice largely defined by co-founder Gavin McInnes, whose work showed some of the first signs of his far-right beliefs as far back as the early 2000s. And according to the doc, it was an approach that also bled into the magazine’s in-office’s culture. Eventually, co-founder Shane Smith would take the helm as the face of the brand, scaling it to new heights with buy-in from partners like Disney and A&E, building out a television network, and ultimately its multi-billion dollar valuation. But, its growth proved to be unsustainable, and would be followed by a series of editorial and financial missteps that would eventually be its downfall. Huang himself explores the hundreds of thousands of dollars in residuals he’s owed in the film.
It might function as an exposé on the downfall of one of the biggest names in media, but Vice is Broke stands on balancing the brand’s failings with its legacy as a culture-defining brand. “I was part of a cultural movement at Vice that was sold out from under us and I’m big mad,” Huang said in an official statement about the film. “There is a way to do business and stay true to things that matter culturally. But to do that you have to suppress ego and greed. I hope modern audiences watch this film as a cautionary tale and do their best to not fuck it up again.”
