Inside Job (2010, documentary) - Ferguson presents the 2008 financial crisis in five acts in stellar documentary

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A grotesque mountain of cash with a suit-wearing man atop, fingers crossed eerily on his back, surrounded by praise, makes up this poster for Charles Ferguson's Inside Job

In five chapters, the film explores and explains the systemic flaws and corruption that led to the 2008 financial crisis in the US, and also how the catastrophic ailments were subsequently (mis)treated.

 

Inside Job is written by co-writer/co-editor Chad Beck (Time to Choose (2015)), co-writer/co-editor Adam Bolt (Human Nature (2019)) and Californian master filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Charles Ferguson (No End in Sight (2007, documentary)), whose second feature it is.

It is the silver-lined film on the financial crisis to watch, in which Ferguson and Co. coolly and educationally lays bare what happened in the years prior to the debacle, what its results were, and why the guilty parties still roam free. Inside Job holds a strict focus on the main perpetrators and achieves an impressive amount of statements, some of which makes the rotten villains stand out with clarity in their varied sinful natures.

Inside Job is a role-model documentary, rage-inducing and simply a must watch.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2 mil. $

Box office: 7.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.9 times its cost)

[Inside Job premiered 2 February (Belgium) and runs 108 minutes. Shooting took place in Iceland, France, England, China, Singapore, Florida, New York and Washington DC. The film opened #50 to a 39k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 250 theaters, grossing 4.3 mil. $ (55.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 862k $ (11.1 %) and France with 669k $ (8.6 %). The film won the Best Documentary Oscar and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Ferguson returned with Time to Choose (2015, documentary). Inside Job is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Inside Job?

Miles Ahead (2015) - Cheadle succeeds with jazz biopic passion project

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Star Don Cheadle blurred out in B/W but with colored specks of reflection on a cool poster for his own Miles Ahead

We meet master jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in a creative and personal crisis. In the same period of time a Rolling Stones journalist gets lucky in approaching the legend after a 5 year break from music. Davis demands a lot - too much - of his wife, and he doesn't create in this period.

Miles Ahead is written by Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota (1996)) and debuting co-writer/co-producer/director/star Don Cheadle (Colors (1988)), with Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (Ali (2001, both)) contributing story elements.
It is an unusual depiction of a musical giant, which springs along with creatively free interpretations back and forth in time, with an obviously deeply personally involved Cheadle. He makes a distinguished portrait of Davis, and certainly not a romanticized portrait; SPOILER Davis cheats, is unreasonable, addicted to drugs, unpredictable and dangerous, apparently having lost his gift with a trumpet, - which he seems to regain at the very end.
Miles Ahead is perhaps not as fully rounded as it could have been, but it is a worthy venture in free form jazz filmmaking with nerve.

Related posts:

Don Cheadle: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - Whedon disappoints with less fun, huge, ugly sequel (actor)
Flight (2012) - Character study masterpiece from Zemeckis and Washington (co-star)
The Guard (2011) - J. McDonagh's uproarious crime comedy debut  (co-star)
Iron Man 2 (2010) - Favreau and Theroux's boisterous, entertaining sequel (co-star)
Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistable porn 'Casino' (co-star)

Don Cheadle talks about the making of the movie in this 5-minute video

Cost: 8.5 mil. $
Box office: 5.1 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.6 times its cost)
[Miles Ahead premiered 10 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. The idea for making the film came around during production of Ali (2001). Relatives to Davis finally got Cheadle involved. Cheadle has stated that Ewan McGregor was cast for his box office appeal. Financing was achieved partly through crowdfunding. Shooting took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. The film opened #32 to a 114k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 527 theaters, grossing 2.6 mil. $ (51 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 1.7 mil. $ (33.3 %) and the UK with 242k $ (4.7 %). The film won a Grammy. According to The-Numbers the film made 335k $ on the home video market. Cheadle has not directed a feature since, but he has made 4 episodes of House of Lies (2014-16); he returned as an actor in Captain America: Civil War (2016). McGregor returned in Jane Got a Gun (2015). Miles Ahead is fresh at 74 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Miles Ahead?

Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see

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+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

With praise literally set between the lines, and the classily dressed Robert S. McNamara up against these, not unlike the background for a criminal in a lineup, this poster for Errol Morris' The Fog of War is cleverly devised

Robert S. McNamara worked with statistics during WWII, modernized the Ford auto company and was the US's secretary of defense for seven years, from 1961-68, while 25,000 US soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War. What lessons did he take from this incredible life?

The Fog of War is a masterwork in documentary from one of the discipline's masters, New-Yorker Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven (1978)), whose 8th feature it is. With one central interview with McNamara, in which the man is framed and the camera sometimes subtly tilted in such a way as to remind us audiences of the dizzying aspects of his statements, and to nudge us into staying critical towards the charismatic and eloquent subject, Morris here attains an expertly insightful portrait of not only US foreign and war politics during the Cold War, and a very powerful man who was pivotal to these, but also of his country on the whole through large parts of the 20th century.
It is both provocative and humanistically inspiring that the film is structured as 11 lessons that we can take (or deny) from the experience of the highly intelligent and complex McNamara. Whatever one may feel about the man and his actions, his cool assessments carry weight and validity. The film showcases a frightfully accomplished political communicator, who opposed the escalation of the Vietnam War internally as part of the political leadership under presidents J.F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and who states frankly that it is only due to the (for the US) humiliating outcome of the war that he hasn't been prosecuted for war crimes. Morris orders his material so that we may ponder over the vast loss of lives and resources while keeping a critical edge towards McNamara. During the credits we are also afforded clips where his responses to Morris' questions are simply denials to answer those that he felt came to close to his personal life, or the ones that he knew would incur too much controversy, (according to his taste.) This is also valuable clips, as they remind us that McNamara is a very conscious of his words and performance as an actor of his own and his country's history for the documentary.
The Fog of War is staged with a staggering mass of archival source material; it is an invaluable source for the understanding of Robert S. McNamara and the century in which he lived.

 

Related posts:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 
Previous Film Excess birthday movie masterpieces: Film Excess' 5th birthday movie masterpiece: Hunger/Sult/Svält (1966) - Oscarsson leaves you breathless in Carlsen's impressionist masterpiece
Film Excess' 4th birthday movie masterpiece: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic
Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty
Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 5 mil. $
= Even (returned 2.5 times its cost)
[The Fog of War premiered 21 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, out of competition) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, Washington DC, Shanghai, China, Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany. The film opened #46 to a 41k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 261 theaters, grossing 4.1 mil. $ (82 % of the total gross). The biggest markets in the 840k $ total foreign gross are not known. The film won the Best Documentary Oscar as well as an Independent Spirit award, 2 National Board of Review awards and other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Morris returned with Abu Ghraib-torture-themed documentary Standard Operating Procedure (2008). The Fog of War is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.32/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fog of War?

Art School Confidential (2006) or, World of Phoney

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+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

Perspiration springs from the young man's face, who is apparently tasked with nude croquis painting on this part-drawn poster for Terry Zwigoff's Art School Confidential

 

Art School Confidential is Wisconsinite master filmmaker Terry Zwigoff's (Louie Bluie (1985, documentary)) second adaptation of a comic book by Daniel Clowes (Wilson (2017)) following the brilliant Ghost World (2001). Clowes adapted his own comic story. It is Zwigoff's second fiction feature.

 
The film is a darkly humorous exposé of the art school world and world of art in general as seen through the eyes of a young, hopeful art school student and prospective artist, alternately strongly convinced and in great doubt as to his own talent.

 
Art School Confidential deserves four small hearts, because it satisfies with many wry laughs, but neglects any major emotions, despite its pretty guilty pleasure lead (Max Minghella (Not Safe for Work (2014))) spending most of the film in a perpetual heartache.
John Malkovich (Penguins of Madagascar (2014)) is in his ace as a failed artist become teacher, and he also co-produced the film. Photographically, there's nothing much to commend in Art School Confidential, which regrettably set back its original, quirky filmmaker's career.

Related posts: 

Terry Zwigoff: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Bad Santa (2003) - Zwigoff sticks dynamite under Christmas in this modern dark comedy classic 

2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Ghost World (2001) - Zwigoff's adaptation is a flawless coming-of-age masterpiece 
Crumb (1994, documentary) or, The Artist As a Cartoonist

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.66 times its cost)

[Art School Confidential premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California and in New York around July 2004. The film opened #29 to a 135k $ first weekend in 12 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 762 theaters and grossed 3.2 mil. $ (96.7 % of the total gross). The film's only other recorded market at Box Office Mojo is the Czech Republic with just under 10k $, the remainder of the total gross. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, in line with this one. Zwigoff looked back upon the film in a 2012 interview, saying that it "was really negatively received both at the box office and critically. Everybody hated that film. I didn't think it was so bad. At least compared to all that other shit out there, anyway. It was certainly just as good as any film in the marketplace. And I'm not saying it's a great film. I'm just saying it's better than most of the dreck." He has since only returned with Budding Prospects (2017, TV short). Minghella returned in Elvis and Anabelle (2007); Malkovich in Klimt (2006); and Sophia Myles (Crossing Lines (2014, TV-series)) in 4 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Hallam Foe (2007). Art School Confidential is rotten at 36 % with a 5.45/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Art School Confidential?