How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)'s activity

There's no question that what makes How to Get Ahead in Advertising work at all is Richard E. Grant. He gives a wild, balls-out performance as a marketing expert who gives no f**ks and takes no prisoners, until he has a breakdown/epiphany and starts to go against the Orwellian system and against his nature. The schism is represented by a giant boil on his neck that has a mind - and voice - of its own. It's insane, but you can of course interpret it as the pimple being just a hallucination. Grant speaks both for and against capitalism, but both takes are condemnation given how terrible his "salesman" persona is. This is Bruce Robinson's follow-up to Withnail & I (he also plays the boil's voice, which does confuse things actually), and so Grant gets to play the same kind of cranked up character. It's not as successful, however, perhaps because it's too dogmatic, perhaps because there isn't much of a throughline - it's just a weird thing that happens to a terrible person and even their redemption is undercut by what the movie wants to say.