Tag Archives: Food Inc.

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At The Theater #45: Inside Job

As soon as Shades of Ray ended, I hopped on the subway into Manhattan on a far too crowded for 9:45 AM A train to catch my first movie at the theater for the day, Inside Job at the Angelika Film Center.

I really like seeing movies at the Angelika. I think this has a lot too do with the ground level café area, which is strange because I think that café is overpriced. But it’s a nicer place to wait for friends than most movie theater lobbies. I’m flying solo today, so instead I found it a nice place to walk through on my way to the downstairs theater.

The three person audience for the 10:45 AM screening of Inside Job was a nice cross section of viewers. There was me, a female NYU student and an old man who claimed after to movie to have worked for one of the investment banks featured in Inside Job, “though long before any of this went down” he was quick to point out.

Waiting for Inside Job to start, I popped open Flixster on my iPhone and experienced something that would occur at the start of three of the four movies I saw in the theater today; I would regret seeing this movie instead of another in the same time slot. It happened here when I saw that I Love You, Phillip Morris was playing at 10:35 AM at Clearview’s Chelsea. I’ve wanted to see that for the past few weeks and cursed myself, thinking that a comedy would be a better way to start the day than a sure to be depressing documentary about the 2008 financial crisis.

This regret passed quickly. Inside Job should be on everyone’s must-watch list. It’s bound to frustrate you and infuriate you, but you need to see it. It’s the Food Inc. of the financial industry. Unfortunately for us, unlike Food, Inc., which ended with some hope, Inside Job shows us how the financial industry screwed us and why it’s bound to happen again. It also explains terms you probably heard on the news, but never had explained, like what exactly a credit default swap is.

It amazes me that in the wake of the two financial crises that bookended the last decade that there isn’t an outcry for stronger financial regulations. But the financial industry has its fingers in so many pies, that better regulation seems unlikely. Inside Job shows not only how powerful the industry’s lobby group is in Washington, but even their hold on business education in America. The same professors who are teaching ideas that fall in line with the way the financial industry thinks are serving on the boards of major corporations. Conflict of interest?

The most egregious part of Inside Job is that no one involved in the economic collapse in 2008 will even admit that mistakes were made by their companies. The fear of lawsuits and any culpability make interviewing these people pointless.

Matt Damon is a great as the narrator. His voice is the only part of Inside Job that won’t piss you off. It’s a nice anchor in the storm.

Inside Job is the scariest movie of 2010. Make sure you see it.

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On The Couch #7: Food Inc.

Food Inc. should be on everyone’s must see list. This documentary about how our food is produced in America is as startling as it is enlightening. This is a movie that will scare you more than a Friday the 13th marathon or the prospect of sitting through a Celine Dion concert.

The hypocrisy of our food producers are laid bare; they advertise “farm fresh,” but what we’re really consuming is generated at a place more akin to a factory assembly line. And the factory isn’t pretty. Cows, pigs and chickens are bred in such close quarters that they’re walking around in their own excrement. They’re cleaned at the slaughterhouse, but living a life of spending your days in their own feces seems to reveal why cases of e. coli and salmonella have risen so much over the years. If an infected cow is taking a dump at the feet of non-infected cows, it’s no surprise that infection spreads.

It will also make you look at hamburgers in a while new light. According to the movie, a single hamburger patty can have the meat of 1,000 cows in it, any of which might be infected with something. 1,000 cows! This didn’t scare me into becoming a vegetarian, but I might look a little more leery at my hamburger next time I’m at 5 Guys.

10,000 cows?

Another startling piece of information learned from watching Food Inc. is just how big a part corn plays in our food consumption. Corn, or a derivative of it, is used someway in about 90% of what you’ll find on your supermarket shelves. The main reason for this is that corn is subsidized to the point that it’s cheaper to buy it than it is to produce it. Corn is the main ingredient used in the feed of not only our livestock, but now also in farmed fish. When you get down to it, we’re becoming corn.

Like the previous night’s movie District 9, Food Inc. shows that when left unregulated by the government, big corporations show little care for human safety or livelihood when dollars are to be made.

Guess which one you had for dinner last night?

But Food Inc. exists not to scare us, but to educate us. The producers do a good job of showing alternatives to the food-factory system. Organic yogurt giant Stonyfield and small scale more naturally oriented livestock farmers are given a chance to show their alternatives to the big, corporate system…even though Stonyfield is now part of the big, corporate system.

Natual chicken farmer Joel Salatin

A final reason to see Food Inc.: Bruce Springsteen’s cover of This Land is Your Land plays during the closing credits. Alright, maybe that’s not a reason to see it, but it’s a nice bonus at the end.
Food Inc. continues Oscar week here at Tuesday Night Movies. It’s nominated for Best Documentary this year. I haven’t seen the other movies in that category, but this one is great, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins on Sunday.

Go out and rent Food Inc. If you have Netflix, it’s available for instant streaming. Just eat before you watch Food Inc., because you might not want to afterwards.

Okay, this is just scary.