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Maxed Out Review on Newsday |
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Written by Gene Seymour
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Friday, 09 March 2007 |
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"Maxed Out" is one of those movies with a lot on its mind and some entertaining means at its disposal to express it. James Scurlock's "J'accuse" against the financial industry's manipulation of Americans towards credit-card debt is delivered very much in the blunt-edged, playful style of guerrilla documentaries.
Its most clever device is the ironic deployment of scenes from an old black-and-white educational film in which an avuncular "Mr. Money" advises wide-eyed high school students to be very, very careful about buying things through credit. Such sound advice is juxtaposed ruefully against a contemporary landscape of American horror stories told by people of varying classes finding themselves in terminal debt.
The rest of the review |