Over the weekend, I had two movie choices, An Inside Job, the documentary about the financial crisis or the new Woody Allen film, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. I chose the former principally because it started in 10 minutes. So much for a relaxing Saturday afternoon.
An Inside Job is not your father’s documentary. The beautiful cinematography and great music have more in common with a mainstream film. On the other hand, the chances of a mainstream film being made on such a difficult subject are nil.
There are two challenges in telling this story. One is that the topic is basically economics-complicated and dry. Director Charles Ferguson tackles this by opening with Iceland’s financial collapse. Although Iceland is a much smaller economy than ours, there are some notable parallels that serve as a smooth segue into our troubles. Ferguson also makes extensive use of graphics that are a bit pedantic, but do adequately explain a credit default swap, for example.
The second problem Ferguson faces is that none of the key players want to talk. In fact, the legions of bankers, politicians, insurance company executives, Federal Reserve officers, regulators, and lobbyists who “declined to be interviewed for this film” far exceeds the ones who would . One needs a few interviews with the leaders in the industry to balance the conversations with the watchdogs, whistle blowers, and contrarians who saw the crisis looming. However, the only wrongdoers that Ferguson could convince to speak on camera are not exactly lynchpins. (Lloyd Blankfein knows better!) It would have been preferable to show additional footage of the Senate hearings where the boys weren’t allowed to dodge the interview, if not the question.
There is plenty of material, however, to make the case that all of this could have been prevented. Furthermore, no meaningful regulation has been enacted to prevent this from happening again. For the big banks, there was a bit of hand ringing, some embarrassing Washington appearances, and fines. But most banks are back on their feet (even if homeowners are not), and the Treasury department and Federal Reserve are still heavily populated with alumnae from those same institutions. It is business as usual.
This fast-paced, visually appealing film provides a good overview, but 129 minutes is not enough time to really delve deeply into the issues. But 129 minutes is more than enough time to make every audience member hopping mad!
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