The Stranger

The funny thing about I.O.U.S.A.—a documentary about the history of the national debt, the size and scope of the current national debt, the bankrolling of this debt by foreign countries, the dimensions of the U.S. trade deficit, the foreclosure crisis, etc.—is that it's premised on the assertion that no one is thinking about/talking about/paying attention to the economy. With reference to the presidential election, one of the experts in I.O.U.S.A. opines, "The most important issue in this campaign is Iraq, but I think that [the economy] is the most important issue." Hearing that now, when newspapers are daily publishing ski-jump-shaped charts about this or that economic trend, makes you long for, like, six months ago, when the producers of this movie thought they were going to have to fight for your attention. In this sense, the movie is right on time—a polished, information-rich, not-dreary, often funny primer on America's financial structure and the dire straits we've been steered into. By Christopher Frizzelle

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