Interview. James D Scurlock.

"If you think of debt collectors and sellers as sleazy hucksters with the morals of a used car salesman, James D Scurlock's Maxed Out will do nothing but rev on your hatred," warns Hannah Eaves, introducing her interview at the main site.

"Even if Scurlock might have better served his study by delving deeper into the greater cultural forces behind financial irresponsibility, Maxed Out boldly spotlights an issue of monumental importance that has taken a backseat to the national conversation on the Iraq War," writes Michael Joshua Rowin at Reverse Shot. "There are some unforgettable, eye-opening revelations and testimonies contained in Maxed Out, an accessible documentary that should lead viewers to make their own inquiries. Let a new conversation begin."

Updated through 3/15.

Given that Maxed Out is a resolutely uncinematic progression of talking heads - and they're talking about a subject most of us would rather not even think about - it's a remarkably entertaining film," writes Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.

"Drawing on the stories of individuals from across the country, Scurlock etches a bleak view of the state of personal debt while taking aim at the predatory strategies of lenders, the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of collection agencies and the cozy relationships between recent Republican administrations and major financial institutions," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. "[W]hile the premise of Maxed Out may not surprise, some of the details will."

"This scattershot exposé of usurious banking practices examines why the most vulnerable segment of society is victimized by the lending industry and finds a simple answer: It's obscenely profitable," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Although Maxed Out would like to be this year's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it doesn't measure up."

"James Scurlock's survey of the out-of-control credit and debt industry begins by informing viewers that this year 'more Americans will go bankrupt than will divorce, graduate college, or get cancer,'" writes Dennis Harvey at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "Of course, thanks to our current president, they won't be able to declare bankruptcy anymore - the lazy sods! Instead they can enjoy a lifetime of astronomical interest rates, threats, and continued solicitations to sign up for yet more loans and plastic."

Nathan Lee, writing in the Voice, was hardly impressed by the book in the first place, but "it's a wiser investment than a ticket bought to the documentary, a slapdash piece of work totally indebted to second-hand rhetorical strategies (the 50s educational film, glib Bush-bashing) and threadbare indignation."

Update, 3/12: IndieWIRE interviews Scurlock.

Update, 3/15: Matt Peterson in the New York Press: "While enjoyable, and to some degree commendable, I can't help but wish that this new breed of filmmakers would have more balls: Toss aside your safe liberalism and speak with more conviction. I can't help but feeling, on some level, that they're too scared to be truly radical."

Posted by dwhudson at March 9, 2007 11:04 PM