Cannes 2010: Inside Job

Charles Ferguson is one of the self-appointed truth-tellers – someone whose mission it is in life to bring information to the general public. And what information it is this time around with Inside Job, the story of the most disgraceful case of corruption amid trusted American financial institutions ever perpetrated against the public.
The funny thing is – it happened. We all know it happened. Not even right wingers can excuse the injustice of the corporations like AIG and Goldman Sachs robbing people blind and walking away with millions stuffed in their pockets. Our government did nothing. They need to dig for that bone harder. We are such a numbed out nation with our minds on whether or not Angelina and Brad are fighting we haven’t been carrying torches and pitchforks and demanding these criminals go to jail. No, we just take it. And we take it.

Please sir, may I have another?

Inside Job lays out the criminal activity, the corporate greed, the unforgivable way poor people were led to believe that they were able to afford a home for the first time ever. They are foreclosed on, forced to move god knows where, and they’re stuck with a bill they can’t pay back – all so that some morally bankrupt piece of shit in a suit could profit off of their bad luck.

No one can watch Inside Job and not feel palm-sweating anger. This was clearly Ferguson’s intent; this isn’t a Frontline piece – this is activism, direct and exacting. An Oscar nomination for this film would hopefully bring more awareness — a silly concept considering this has been covered in the press continuously — to the need for direct action and reform.

Bill Clinton gets a blow job in the Oval Office and suddenly the American government shuts down and it’s considered the biggest scandal of his presidency.¬† America is suddenly up in arms against our philandering Pres. But this? Oh, this is nothing – just more of the same. The rich get rich and the poor stay poor.

Besides the message in Ferguson’s film, it is well made – beautifully filmed, and gets more intense as more information is revealed. Most telling of all are those who refused to talk to Ferguson — they prefer to keep their mouths shut: don’t ask, don’t tell, turn on Dancing with the Stars.

I put Inside Job up there as one of the best films I’ve seen here at Cannes.¬†¬† I have given up trying to predict what the doc branch will do – so I can’t even venture a guess. Although I get his point, I don’t think Ferguson needs the last shot in the film, which I won’t spoil for you. I feel like it guilds the lily. No need. But yeah, point taken.