Author: de Semlyen, Phil
Date published: July 1, 2011
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It's a stockbuster
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A HEIST MOVIE IN EVERYTHING but name, Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning doc is a terrifically entertaining exposé of the global banking crisis. Crackling with righteous fury hey, that's Jason Bourne doing the voiceover it points the finger of blame firmly at greedy US investment banks and a smugly compliant government. Crawling out from under the rock is a cast of sub-Gekko execs and policy wonks whose indignant straight-batting suggests few lessons have been learnt. The bigger fish. Alan Greenspan. Hank Paulson et al. are notable by iheir absence (unsurprising considering the filleting Ferguson gives his more culpable interviewees) and the detour into strippers, drugs and expense fraud feels like a tabloidy tangent, but these are minor complaints. Smart, pacy and accessible. Let's hope there's no sequel.
EXTRASAn intriguing yack-track in which Ferguson and producer Audrey Marrs chart their painstaking efforts to pin down the elusive finance moguls. There's also a talky 'making of ' and deleted scenes.
Phil de Semlyen
FILM **** EXTRAS ***
