Los Angeles Film Festival

Freakonomics

(USA, 2010, 86 mins)

Executive Producers: Michael Roban, Paul Fiore, Jay Rifkin, Damon Martin, Seth Gordon
Producers: Chad Troutwine, Seth Gordon
Screenwriters: Seth Gordon, Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock, Peter Bull, Alex Gibney, Eugene Jarecki
Cinematographers: Tony Hardmon, Darren Lew, Rob VanAlkemade
Editors: Douglas Blush, Tova Goodman, Sloane Klevin, Nelson Ryland, Michael Taylor
Music: Paul Brill, Michael Furjanic, Michael Wandmacher

In their bestseller Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner applied statistical and economic theories to human behavior and came up with startling and often controversial explanations of the way the world really works. It was a publishing sensation. Now, some of our best documentary filmmakers translate their ideas into film with equally eye-opening results.

Morgan Spurlock ponders whether the names we're given influence our fate (and how race factors into the equation). Alex Gibney travels to Japan to uncover the shocking underbelly of sumo wrestling and finds scandalous parallels on Wall Street. Eugene Jarecki takes a detour to Romania en route to a provocative explanation for why the crime rate in the U.S. dramatically dropped in the early '90s. Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing turn their cameras on 9th graders to ask whether good grades can be achieved by bribery. Seth Gordon directs the connective episodes, in which Levitt and Dubner act as genial emcees for this entertaining and enlightening look at life's secret rules.

David Ansen

Expected to attend: Seth Gordon.

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