MOVIE REVIEW: Inside Job (2010)

Inside Job is the 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, and takes a relatively objective apporach to analyzing the origin and consequences of the current global recession. Narrated by Matt Damon, the director uses pointed visual guides and graphs to explain the concepts of deregulation, systemic risk, etc. Augmented by interviews from economic insiders/pundits Paul Volcker and Eliot Spitzer, among other outsiders, Inside Job is and outstanding piece of work for bringing the drama of the recession to the limelight, and sparing no blame for the Wall-Streeters and corporate honchos alike, who allowed the excessive spending to spiral out of control into the mess our country is currently in, today.

Granted there's a lot of different people to blame for the recession, and more than just one factor, alone. Inside Job presents these factors as a slick outline, while sticking to the basic core factors of the housing bubble, credit bubble, and executive corruption. For some people who are not well-economically versed, a few things may go over their heads, I certainly had to work hard in order to keep my focus on the facts. Luckily, it's a topic that has strong relevance in today's political climate, and people should find that as incentive to watch (as long as they don't find the topic too depressing to stomach anymore). It is miles more comprehensive than Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, which I felt leeched more off of victims unemployment misery, making it a treatise of remorse, rather than diagnosis. Complex? Yes. Engaging? Definitely. Inside Job should satisfy anyone seeking answers to the cause of the crisis.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon