Several films now playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, and set to open in theaters around the United States in the next few months, offer a brutal assessment of the debt-swapping high jinks, regulatory failings and general spirit of self-aggrandizement that, by the movie world’s lights, led to the financial collapse of 2008.
Two documentaries, “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” directed by Alex Gibney, and “Inside Job,” from Charles Ferguson, take direct aim at Wall Street powers who are described as contributing to the financial implosion. The films also land some shots on Mr. Spitzer, the watchdog who became governor of New York and who fell from grace in a prostitution scandal but has now been somewhat rehabilitated as a host on CNN.
“Client 9” is set for release on Nov. 5 by Magnolia Pictures. “Inside Job” will be shown at the New York Film Festival later this month, then will be released commercially by Sony Pictures Classics in October. A third film, “Casino Jack,” directed by George Hickenlooper, casts Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff, the former businessman and lobbyist who was sentenced to federal prison after a conviction for defrauding Indian tribes and contributing to official corruption.
Note EU-Digest: Its good to have these films out. Will it change much of the Wall Street casino culture, probably not. What would work, which hardly anyone wants to mention or tackle, is to putting some of the culprits in jail and getting some really effective laws in place to see this does not happen again.
For more: Documentaries Set Sights on Wall Street - NYTimes.com
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