Film Review: Inside Job

Director: Charles H. Ferguson

The financial crisis that started to occur in 2008 had a dramatic effect on the world we live in today, barely a day goes by where the financial plight of companies or entire countries seem to be in jeopardy or the words ''economic recovery'' or ''economic downturn'' are uttered by journalists. But considering how much it affected millions of people around the world, only a small percentage truly understand what happened to cause such a catastrophe beyond knowing it's about sub-prime mortgages. The film is narrated by Matt Damon.

Inside Job is a documentary split into five parts that begins by examining how de-regulation in 2000 affected Iceland who managed to dig themselves into such a huge financial hole. The five parts cover the entire cause from beginning to end, they are named: How we got here, the bubble, the crisis, accountability and where are we now. The film is mainly comprised of interviews with politicians, analysts, traders and economic lecturers from Universities but also shows examples of how much of the trading of derivatives worked to give you an understanding of where the risk came from in what was being done.

Prominent CEO's of major banks who ended up working for the Bush administration

Charles H. Ferguson has become one of the leading documentary makers of recent years after widespread acclaim for his previous film No End in Sight about post-war Iraq. Here he creates a well argued documentary that keenly explains the failings of the banking system in putting sufficient regulation in place to stop fraud and mis-selling to name just two. Here he crafts a documentary that is thrilling from the outset and is equally helped by the effective narration by Damon.

The findings at the end of the film about how Obama has hired many architects of the financial crisis to prominent positions in the White House and Federal Bank shows just how influential Wall Street etc is in political terms and how countries will always be at the mercy of the banks.The interviews feature many prominent and incredibly knowledgeable people who share their opinions and ideas although many of the people criticized in the film declined to be interviewed, but a few decided to answer their criticisms but either were exposed as blatantly lying or as incredibly obnoxious and arrogant.

4/4 fascinating documentary with painstaking research and interviews