This was a well-done documentary. It was also extremely depressing. The film takes you from the beginnings of the global recession all the way through to where we are now. It explains all the boring-ass financial terms but never feels like it's talking down to the audience. The tone is very light, very tongue-in-cheek, highlighting the absurdities and double-speak of the people who made the most gain from the global meltdown.
I did this film back-to-back with Country Strong. It was even in the same auditorium. The crowds were markedly different. CS had mostly couples, mostly older, some groups of women together and predominantly white. Inside Job was younger, a little more bohemian, a bit more ethnically diverse, and a lot more vocal. They made noises of disbelief or disgust at the excesses they were shown on screen, like when it was announced that the CEO of Goldman Sachs walked away from his job with $161 million in cash and options after almost plunging America back into the Grapes of Wrath.
It doesn't just keep the focus here at home either. The movie starts with the collapse of the Icelandic economy and goes on to show how truly global something like this is. What happens on Wall Street affects factory workers in Taiwan and Singapore. And as much as it would like to end on a hopeful note, it can't. Because the exact same people are running things. They shuffle around back and forth between positions but it's a shell game and a rigged one at that.
Honestly, I think most people should watch this movie. Maybe then we'd realize that our finances are like the Wild West, run by criminals who answer only to themselves. We need a Wyatt Earp with a smoking Peacemaker to come in and sort this all out. I mean that metaphorically, of course. Well, mostly.
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