Movie · 2010 · Documentary, Crime · 1h 49m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 8.5/10 (113.2K ratings)
The film that cost over $20,000,000,000,000 to make.
Overview
A film that exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.5/10
IMDb: 8.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.88/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 88
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Charles Ferguson
Production
Sony Pictures
Cast
Matt Damon, Bill Ackman, Jonathan Alpert, Christine Lagarde, Daniel Alpert, Sigridur Benediktsdottir, Gylfi Zoega, Andri Snær Magnason, Paul Volcker, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, George Soros, Barney Frank, Scott Talbott, Andrew Sheng, Lee Hsien Loong, Gillian Tett, Nouriel Roubini, R. Glenn Hubbard, Eliot Spitzer, Samuel Hayes
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, infuriating, and still highly relevant documentary on the 2008 financial crisis. It’s dense but accessible, and its anger is matched by careful reporting and clear structure.
Best for
viewers who want a rigorous explanation of the financial crisis
people interested in political corruption and regulatory failure
fans of angry, issue-driven documentaries
audiences who liked The Big Short and want the real-world version
Skip if
you want a light or fast-moving watch
you dislike talking-head documentaries
you already know the basics of the 2008 crash and want something more stylistically inventive
Overview
Inside Job is one of the clearest and most damning accounts of how the 2008 financial collapse happened and why so many of the people responsible walked away untouched. It takes a sprawling, technical subject and makes it legible without sanding off the outrage. The film’s power comes from its accumulation of evidence: incentives, deregulation, conflicts of interest, and the revolving door between finance, government, and academia.
Worth noting
It can feel dry in places, but that’s partly the point. Ferguson is building a case, not staging a spectacle, and the result is more unsettling than a dramatized version because the facts are allowed to speak for themselves. Matt Damon’s narration helps keep the film moving, and the interviews give it a cold, procedural menace.
Bottom line
If you want a documentary that explains systemic failure with precision and moral force, this is essential viewing. It’s not just about one crash; it’s about a structure that rewarded recklessness and punished everyone else.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Daxtreme (4★) · 510 likes
The Big Short's realist and even more depressing twin.
Excellent documentary that highlights just how frustrating it is that
a) only about 10 people had the power to actually do something about the 2008 financial crisis. Since sociopaths naturally climb to power positions, they didn't give a flying fuck about the consequences of their actions. No surprises there.
b) nothing happened to those people who were responsible.
c) even though the source of this shit happened in the USA, it… more
Andy Summers 🤠 (4.5★) · 161 likes
Rarely have I ever watched a documentary with such anger and disbelief. We've known for many years the sort of scumbags that work in the stock market and the financial industry, and I'm not just talking about Gordon Gekko in Wall Street or Jeremy Irons' CEO in Margin Call. They're the sort of people who'd sell their grandmother's wheelchair if it meant a bonus went into their sky rocket. Cunts is what I'd normally call them, but even the most… more Rarely have I ever watched a documentary with such anger and disbelief. We've known for many years the sort of scumbags that work in the stock market and the financial industry, and I'm not just talking about Gordon Gekko in Wall Street or Jeremy Irons' CEO in Margin Call. They're the sort of people who'd sell their grandmother's wheelchair if it meant a bonus went into their sky rocket. Cunts is what I'd normally call them, but even the most… more
Grant (5★) · 122 likes
A very entertaining horror film.
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3.5★) · 102 likes
Written, produced and directed by the same guy that brought us the cool docseries Dirty Money on Netflix, this Oscar winning documentary tackles the 2008 financial crisis by interviewing many of those who were closed involved in the whole dealing and downfall at the time. Its basically The Big Short but much less star-studded, no recreation, no hot Margot Robbie in a bathtub (though we got Matt Damon narrating) but just like as complicated as the Oscar winning film.
There’s… more
Josh Lewis (3★) · 89 likes
Unfortunately laden with almost all of the most mediocre and boring formal tools of the hit documentaries of this era that now mostly exist as fodder for poor imitators on Netflix, but this is still a very solid, well-researched and accessibly packaged overview of the years leading up to the subprime mortgage crisis. The deliberate ideological design of the policies, the industry surrounding both lobbying politicians and economic academics to push them, who benefited and lost the most from this… more Unfortunately laden with almost all of the most mediocre and boring formal tools of the hit documentaries of this era that now mostly exist as fodder for poor imitators on Netflix, but this is still a very solid, well-researched and accessibly packaged overview of the years leading up to the subprime mortgage crisis. The deliberate ideological design of the policies, the industry surrounding both lobbying politicians and economic academics to push them, who benefited and lost the most from this… more