Sundance Installment Two - I.O.U.S.A. and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - 4 out of 4 stars

I was somewhat reluctant to see this movie. While I am a fan of Polanski's work as a director, I thought it would turn out to be an apologist's love-letter to Polanski in the midst of a statutory rape of a 13 year-old girl in California in 1977, an event that led him to flee the country for refuge in Paris. When Polanski won a Best Director Oscar for 2002's The Pianist, he wasn't present to accept the award because he could face arrest for fleeing prosecution.

That's about all I knew about the case going into this film and upon viewing the screening I realized how sensationalized the story had become. The film deftly produces objectivity and factual reporting while providing both a biographical sketch of the French-born Polish director (his parents were killed in the Holocaust and the only stable relationship in his life - with his wife Sharon Tate - ended with her murder by Charles Manson's clan) and a compelling view of the court case that followed Polanski's police charges.

The court case involved the judge's love of media attention and it culminated in shady (and possibly illegal) attempts by the judge to compel both the defense and prosecutor involved in the case to help make him look good. He neglected recommendations by the legal system regarding sentencing, altered promises made to the defense and prosecution, ultimately Polanski's pre-sentencing flight from the country. The movie is both well-researched biography and compelling courtroom drama.


I.O.U.S.A. - 4 out of 4 stars

What's the biggest threat to our nation today - Terrorism? Illegal Immigrants? According to the sensible and persuasive United States Comptroller General David Walker, it's the nation's ballooning debt, which is $9.2 trillion dollars.

That's 9,200,000,000,000.

I.O.U.S.A. focuses on Walker and Robert Bixby, the Tab-swilling executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan group advocating responsible fiscal policy as they go on a nationwide Fiscal Wake-Up Tour to educate Americans about America's perilous financial situation. What could have been a rather dry, didactic sermon about the United States' debt and economic policies past and present is instead an urgent, fascinating call-to-arms for citizens to take the initiative in demanding responsible governmental spending and financial planning.

The film doesn't blame any single president or administration for the catastrophic way our nation has dealt with its federal debt since World War II. (Though during the current President Bush's two terms the debt has swelled from over $5 trillion to its current $9 trillion. I feel slightly vindicated in my exasperating confusion over how doling out corporate and individual tax cuts while boosting spending and paying for a war helps the country's economy in the long run.)

What the film does do is bring in well-educated officials from the financial arena, from Warren Buffett to Comptroller Walker to Robert Rubin to Ron Paul, to explain in a plain-spoken manner the way that the crisis could come (48% of our debt is held by foreign nationals; the debt issue is often buried in news coverage and on the campaign trail by sexier subjects; government entitlements need to be cut and taxes need to be raised). The film urges people to become informed and hold their elected officials responsible to help fix this problem. In the interest of education, see this movie and check out these web sites:

Government Accountability Office
The Concord Coalition
I.O.U.S.A. official site
Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis (the book that inspired the movie's director, Patrick Creadon)