Payback

Name: Payback
Genre: Documentary
Released: April 25, 2012
Duration: 82 min
Rating: 55

2012

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Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: April 25, 2012 | Not Rated

Summary: Margaret Atwood’s visionary work Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for this riveting and poetic documentary on “debt” in its various forms—societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic. Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal interweaves these (sometimes surprising) debtor/creditor relationships:Margaret Atwood’s visionary work Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for this riveting and poetic documentary on “debt” in its various forms—societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic. Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal interweaves these (sometimes surprising) debtor/creditor relationships: two families in a years-long Albanian blood feud; the BP oil spill vs. the Earth; mistreated Florida tomato farm workers and their bosses; imprisoned media mogul Conrad Black and the U.S. justice system. (Zeitgeist Films)… Expand

Director: Jennifer Baichwal

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 82 min

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Critic Reviews

Rick Groen

Apr 21, 2012

Payback is nothing if not brave. It's a documentary attempt to give concrete shape to an abstract discussion, using the medium of film to transplant a nuanced thesis – on the concept of debt – from its natural home on the printed page. Read full review

Noel Murray

Apr 25, 2012

Payback attempts something impressively difficult, but it succeeds primarily in its individual moments. Read full review

Mark Feeney

Jun 21, 2012

Debt is bad, we can all agree, as is its conceptual cousin, greed. It would have been intellectually bracing, though, to have a Gordon Gekko equivalent on hand to argue otherwise. Read full review

Rob Nelson

Apr 21, 2012

Payback is a rarefied conceptual documentary that will appeal to a limited but highly appreciative audience. Read full review

Andrew Schenker

Apr 24, 2012

While the movie occasionally stretches too far to maintain thematic coherence, its momentum is sustained by the urgency of its case studies, as well as the sense of outrage at the injustices perpetuated at the behest of powerful monetary interests and its striking imagery. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

Apr 27, 2012

All are subjects worthy of discussion, but tackling them in one film disrupts the movie's momentum and shortchanges viewers. Baichwal could have devoted a single film to just BP's disgraceful behavior. Read full review

Duane Byrge

Apr 21, 2012

Aesthetically, it's desultory. Talking-heads rants and ruminations are further stultified by the amateurish aesthetics. Visually, zooms, pans and filler moments enervate the message. Most annoying, the dour music grates throughout; its hollow grinding, we'd guess, is an attempt to impart profundity. Read full review

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