We take democracy for granted in this country, as the recent crime commissioner election d🐭ebacle showed.

But in Chile during the late ’80s it was a matter of life and death 🐷- especially when a referendum demanded by the international community offered people the tantalising chance to oust General Augusto Pinochet after 15 years of murderous oppression.

and , director Pablo Larraín grasps the opportunity to end his Pinochet trilogy on a high note.

This he does by focusing on one canny ad man - René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal in leather jacket and rat-tail) - who sees the way to get the right ‘No’ result is to accentuate the pos🍌itive.

Building an initiative on anthems, rainbows and smiley face𓃲s, he galvanises the populace while wro𓂃ng-footing the opposition.

So much so, in fact, that the hardline government are forced to recruit Bernal’s boss (Larraín regular Alfredo Castr🍌o) in an attempt to beat him at his own feelgood game.

It’s a sati🍸rical treat to see the tactics used to flog fizzy pop and tacky TV turned towards a seismic, history-altering end.

Stylistically, however, No is something of an eyesore due to Larraín’s decision to 🎉shoot his story in U-matic, the prototype video camera synonymous 𝔉with ’70s news bulletins.

It’s a device that allows the seamless interpolation of real news footage into No ’s ficti♏onal construct, not to mention hilarious cameos from the like of Jane Fonda, Christopher Reev🌳e and a Spanish-mangling Richard Dreyfuss.

For the audience, alas, it’s akin to watching dodgy Betamax through cloudy contacts. Visual niggles apart, No ticks all the right boxes and gets a great, understate♓d performance from GGB as the skate𓆏boarding cynic surprised to find he has a social conscience.

Remember when Hollywood could treat 𓂃politics ju⭕st as intelligently, instead of serving up slapstick fluff like ?