Review of "Inside Job"

Wall Street owns Washington.

You might think you know this, but "Inside Job" makes you feel the enormity of it.

The documentary — which blasts members of both political parties, including President Barack Obama — is a succinct, breathtaking, hope-draining examination of America's corrupt financial façade.

It tracks the effect financial deregulation has had on both the country and the world, letting financiers sell products with impunity, knowing a house of cards is doomed to fall but raking in billions in the meantime. And by the way, this film explains crazy things like "credit default swaps" with startling clarity.

The nuttiest, or most bizarrely blatant, part of the equation is how the government keeps calling on the same people who've created and sponsored the problems to fix them. Guess what? Nothing gets fixed.

The rich are now far richer than ever, the middle class is disappearing and Wall Street is thriving. This isn't a political perspective; this is plain reality.

Directed by Charles Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon, "Inside Job" begins in Iceland, a country virtually ruined in 2008 by unregulated banks that took on gargantuan loans. Then it moves to America and things really get grim.

Ferguson doesn't just look at the way Wall Street controls the government, he also makes the point that academia — the supposed experts in the field of finance — has also been co-opted. Many of the biggest names earn millions as consultants and corporate board members and by concocting bogus studies.

The film is beautifully shot, and Ferguson adds some musical spice here and there. But it's the clarity of old-fashioned talking-head narration, combined with some sweet gotcha moments and a blessed lack of ranting that makes it work.

That and the movie's grim message: We are owned, government and people, made and ruined, by those at the top.