NYFF: Inside Job, a look at documentaries

New York Film Festival impressions by
Brian Whisenant

I used to play a game with myself years ago…trying to not only figure out which 5 films would be nominated for Best Picture, but also trying to see them all before the nominations were announced. I remember incredibly well the first year I accomplished that. It was 2003 when I saw “Gangs of New York” the night before the nominations were announced. It was a bit of torture going in because I assumed it would be terrible and no one was sure it would actually make the top 5. Well, I probably commented many times on this very site how much I was surprised that I liked it. Afterwards I went to what was one of the oldest bars in NYC with my best friend, and we talked out all the possibilities. After we got a bit tipsy debating everything from “The Pianist” to “Far From Heaven” she said that I should take this Oscar watching deadline to the next level. After a few years, I did. In 2006, I made the pact to see every film (including shorts and docs) that was nominated before the awards were announced. Keep in mind this is way before I became “press,” so this was still quite a feat.

After seeing “Inside Job,” an incredibly haunting documentary about the biggest world financial crisis since the Great Depression, I recalled a time when I couldn’t care less about documentary films. When did that change? Well, it pretty much boils down to a film called “Street Fight,” a 2006 doc directed by the amazing Marshall Curry (who directed this year’s “Racing Dreams” which was…until today…my favorite documentary of the year).

Back in 2006 seeing films like “Brokeback Mountain” and the brilliant “Sophie Scholl: the Final Days” (nominated for Foreign Language Film) were easy when trying to see all the nominated films. But I completely dreaded the documentaries. Yes…I was one of those people who always went into the kitchen to make another cocktail when they gave away the award for Best Documentary. When I saw “Street Fight” my opinion changed.

You might have recently seen Cory Booker on the Oprah show when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (does everything go back to “The Social Network?”) donated 100 million dollars to Newark, NJ (via Cory Booker) to help education. “Street Fight” is the story of Booker’s fight to win the mayoral race in Newark over the corrupt Sharpe James. This film was incredibly empowering (my favorite type of doc), making me want to go back in time to do everything I could to help him win his race. Unfortunately, he lost the race, but after the film, as you know, we (and Newark) got a happy ending.

Needless to say, I developed a love for documentaries that I never thought I would have thanks to this new Oscar watching rule. Between 2006 and 2010 I never really saw anything that wasn’t nominated for the Oscars, but that’s not too terrible. How many of the regular folk see five docs in a year? If not for the Oscar watching pact would I have made the effort to see the likes of “The Most Dangerous Man in America” or the incredibly eye opening “The Garden?” Probably not. But are the 5 nominated films the best? This year, the year of the documentary, I am grateful that I have been able to expand my documentary viewing. Thanks to AD and Sasha, I was able to see tons of amazing docs, many at the Tribeca Film Festival, that may have zero shot at the Oscar. Many of them won’t even get a release. (Still haven’t heard the fate of my Tribeca fave, “Budrus.”) And if they do, it won’t be this year at all. (“Racing Dreams” won Best Doc at Tribeca 2 years ago, was momentarily released this year, and isn’t even in the Oscar conversation.)

So, with all of these docs in my rolodex for 2010, it says a lot that “Inside Job” is the best that I have seen this year. Partially because of its high quality in terms of filmmaking, but mostly its relevance to my own life. Four years ago, I became minutely responsible for our current…or perhaps recently passed recession. About 1/3 of the way through “Inside Job,” my heart broke when I learned what a CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) was. Who knew that a loan given to the likes of me would be used to add to “safe securities” that would then be used to make Wall Street execs rich, when in actuality I had no right getting the loan at all in the first place, considering I am a “starving actor” and have no real ability to pay such a thing. (My only flaw with the film is that it doesn’t take “me” to task for taking the loan in the first place. Then again, the film is called “INSIDE Job.”) By then end of the film I stopped “whining” and became incredibly angry, ready to fight. This film is a rare moment (along with “The Social Network”) when an incredibly well done film comes along at exactly the right time.

The key to really appreciating this film is understanding that it pertains to each and every one of us. Have you bought a house in the past 10 years, before the recession… when we were in the “bubble,” so perfectly explained in the film? Have you ever missed a credit card payment? The press release is filled with information about Asset Backed Securities, Capital Structure and the dreaded Collateralized Debt Obligation. I could try to go deeper into it here, but Matt Damon (the narrator of the film) explains it better than I ever could. See the movie!

So, where does this film stand in terms of Oscar? Well…let’s look at another major high profile possibility. Earlier this year I had the privilege to go to the opening night of “Countdown to Zero” which had me hobnobbing with the likes of Heather Graham (ps…if a conversation ends with “let’s get together, call me,” make sure that numbers are exchanged). Followers of Awards Wiz know that I didn’t love the film. But forget what I think personally, “Countdown” is a serious contender for Best Doc. It is filmed like a feature, with aerial shots, shocking interviews (A present day Gorbachev? Seriously? Amazing!) but seemed, in my opinion, to be a bit “all over the place.” “Inside Job” has all of the great qualities of “CTZ” but is also a focused “slow roll” of information that begins at 60 miles per hour and continues to accelerate…accelerating the audience’s anger for two hours. Perhaps a smaller, more intimate doc could sneak in, but “Inside Job” is truly the film to beat.

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Brian Whisenant covers Tribeca and the NYFF for Awards Daily, and runs Awards Wiz year round.