I.O.U.S.A. (2008)

Certain topics — the Enron disaster, the industrialization of corn — are so thick with unsexy detail that if you happen to see a good documentary about them, it can produce a kind of catharsis. ''Aha!'' you exclaim. ''Now I finally get it!'' I.O.U.S.A., a sharp, absorbing portrait of our national debt crisis, has that energizing brain-food effect. The film traces how America, whose federal debt reached $8.7 trillion in 2007, has put its future into hock. It's a scary, sobering look at toothless leaders and credit-addicted consumers locked in a duet of denial. If they handed out an Academy Award for Most Gripping Graphs and Charts, this film would take it. A

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