ApeDonkey Netfix Reviews - 3/2/11

The Go-Getter - See it - Nice little indie film with an excellent soundtrack featuring M.Ward. Mercer is a 19 year old boy who loves adventurous books like Huckleberry Finn but laments the fact that he's never sought out on his own adventure. In a moment of spontaneity Mercer steals a car at a local restaurant to set out on an adventure. This is where the story begins or so we think. Along the way he forms a relationship with the owner of the car through hours of phone conversations. He reconnects with a girl from middle school while seeking out to find his long lost brother. The Go-Getter is one of those movies you like because it's the type of thing you'd like to do but never do. Just like Jenna Malone's character is the kind of girl you want to hook up with but never do. Overall it's a good movie with just the right amount of drama and comedy to keep you interested.

Inside Job - Must see - I don't mean to ruin your pristine image of what the US is but our government and the people who run Wall Street are a bunch crooked motherfuckers. That is indisputable. Inside Job is the Oscar winning documentary that exposes what happened to cause the collapse of the financial markets in 2007 and the resulting bail outs of the investment banking system. The documentary is beautifully produced with Matt Damon narrating. Producer/Director Charles Ferguson is relatively fearless when interviewing the major players of the rampant banking scandals from a few years ago. Well he's fearless with the ones that would actually talk to him. The film does a nice job explaining the complex criminal actions these Wall Street fat cats committed. Among the many things you learn is that this isn't a left wing or right wing issue but a case of the Wall Street players being ostensibly beyond the law largely due to an incestuous relationship between Wall Street banks and the government agencies charged with regulating them. It's an infuriating look at the greed, entitlement and excesses of a world most of us will never experience but ultimately are forced to pay for with our tax dollars.

The Lottery - See it - This is a terrific companion piece if you watched and enjoyed Waiting for Superman. Where Waiting for Superman takes a more macro view of our educational crisis The Lottery concentrates solely on the school system in New York City and Harlem specifically. Many of the same players like Geoffrey Canada appear in both films and we the audience are ultimately left with the same inescapable anger at a broken system. I find it hard to believe anyone can watch either of these movies and not find themselves backing the Wisconsin Governor and his fight to break the teacher union. Especially when you see them do stuff like hire ACORN to come in and create social unrest in neighborhoods to prevent charter schools from opening because they don't have contracts with them. Few things will piss you off more than seeing kids suffer from the stubbornness and ignorance of adults. The Lottery isn't quite as good as Waiting for Superman but still very much worth watching.