INEQUALITY FOR ALL (Jacob Kornbluth). 90 minutes. Opens Friday (November 1). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNN
This engaging and informative primer on economic inequality in the world’s wealthiest nation is essentially a one-man show. Thankfully, that man is affable economist Robert Reich, who served in the Ford and Carter administrations, was secretary of labour under Clinton and currently lectures at Berkeley.
A stubborn optimist and gifted speaker capable of communicating complex ideas in layman’s terms, Reich analyzes 80 years of U.S. financial history. His conclusions are incontrovertible, alarming and hardly surprising: salaries for corporate executives are through the roof, while most of their employees haven’t seen their wages increase in decades it’s the evaporating middle class – not the rich – who buy stuff and create jobs the postwar economy was stronger because it supported higher education and unions lobbyists are satanic.
Director Jacob Kornbluth accents Reich’s lecture with images of Americans at work, interviews with frustrated families of all political stripes and effective motion graphics. In one especially clever sequence, a line graph turns into a suspension bridge.
Can a film like Inequality For All actually instigate change? Beats me. But anything that increases awareness without feeding into dunderheaded partisan bullying can only be a good thing.
