I saw Inside Job at the Toronto International Film Festival opening night at Ryerson Theatre to a packed house of 1,000 or so people with director, producer, and Financial Times journalist present, and fielding questions after this eye-opening and thought-provoking movie narrated by Matt Damon who was paid at 'substantially below his commercial rate'. This is a very important movie to watch. I think it's important that we all see how and why this could have happened if we want to prevent it from happening again.
Before I get to the good parts, I want to call out what I thought was missing from this documentary: a strong objective on what me, the viewer should do. What's the call to action? Should I be enraged and (were I American) call my house of representative to vent my frustration about the lack of and need for change? Perhaps. But I didn't feel that. That strong emotional reaction was missing. If that's important to you, maybe it won't be a satisfying movie, but regardless, I still say this is on a VERY important topic, and it's done VERY well, that people should see this.
What was good about it? 1) It explains the events and potential complex Financial concepts in a concise, easy-to-understand manner. The director has a PHD from MIT, and it shows. The writing is intelligent, the story tells with an economy of language and is well structured.
2) It is logical, comes across as factual, paints various people in often uncompromising light, to reveal a picture of Financial greed, excess, and lack of honesty in the US financial system. It shows why this picture is believable, and makes a convincing argument that this greed, excess, and lack of honesty in the system will NOT change.
3) Is it horrifying? No. Some people might paint a picture of the movie like that, but for me, it was reasonable in its claims. Sure, it was hard on people and things. And it feels like a very complete and real world view to me, pulling together all the tidbits I've read/heard of into one conclusive thesis....which I LOVED.
4) It did make me think, what if I became employed in the industry in the early 2000s...would that have been a good thing or a bad thing? Interestingly, it showed how doing so would and could have been very good for someone to do so (become exceedingly and perhaps unfairly wealthy), with very little accountability if things failed. Yes -- we should ALL have done so if we could. Because so many people got away with it. Greed. Excess. The immoral crap doesn't exist. The system is flawed. So take advantage until the government does something. BUt they do not. Or did not, and may not. The ugliness may not clean itself up. That's part of the message. And if you 5) So -- what to do now? Take money out of the markets. Don't support these US institutions (Investment banks/large US financial institutions). That was the subtle message for me.
AND --> tell everyone about this movie. To watch it. To be warned that all is not well. And perhaps someone will do something, say something, or perhaps act a little more honestly to try to right the wrongs of this world.
This movie was courageous. It gets my support.
Before I get to the good parts, I want to call out what I thought was missing from this documentary: a strong objective on what me, the viewer should do. What's the call to action? Should I be enraged and (were I American) call my house of representative to vent my frustration about the lack of and need for change? Perhaps. But I didn't feel that. That strong emotional reaction was missing. If that's important to you, maybe it won't be a satisfying movie, but regardless, I still say this is on a VERY important topic, and it's done VERY well, that people should see this.
What was good about it? 1) It explains the events and potential complex Financial concepts in a concise, easy-to-understand manner. The director has a PHD from MIT, and it shows. The writing is intelligent, the story tells with an economy of language and is well structured.
2) It is logical, comes across as factual, paints various people in often uncompromising light, to reveal a picture of Financial greed, excess, and lack of honesty in the US financial system. It shows why this picture is believable, and makes a convincing argument that this greed, excess, and lack of honesty in the system will NOT change.
3) Is it horrifying? No. Some people might paint a picture of the movie like that, but for me, it was reasonable in its claims. Sure, it was hard on people and things. And it feels like a very complete and real world view to me, pulling together all the tidbits I've read/heard of into one conclusive thesis....which I LOVED.
4) It did make me think, what if I became employed in the industry in the early 2000s...would that have been a good thing or a bad thing? Interestingly, it showed how doing so would and could have been very good for someone to do so (become exceedingly and perhaps unfairly wealthy), with very little accountability if things failed. Yes -- we should ALL have done so if we could. Because so many people got away with it. Greed. Excess. The immoral crap doesn't exist. The system is flawed. So take advantage until the government does something. BUt they do not. Or did not, and may not. The ugliness may not clean itself up. That's part of the message. And if you 5) So -- what to do now? Take money out of the markets. Don't support these US institutions (Investment banks/large US financial institutions). That was the subtle message for me.
AND --> tell everyone about this movie. To watch it. To be warned that all is not well. And perhaps someone will do something, say something, or perhaps act a little more honestly to try to right the wrongs of this world.
This movie was courageous. It gets my support.