Freakonomics (2010)

Directors: Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, Morgan Spurlock

Starring: Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Six Rogue Filmmakers Explore The Hidden Side Of Everything

Plot: Several documentary directors each film a segment representing one chapter of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's best-seller Freakonomics, which explains different elements of popular culture through economic theory and statistics. Issues include everything from cheating sumo wrestlers to whether Roe v. Wade produced a drop in crime.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Eh, maybe, but there are far too many docs I haven't seen to get to first.

This is peculiar. I watched this on Netflix Instant 3 months ago and I can remember very little about it except that I liked it. I recall that it was interesting, informative and never dull. The authors were all about how important incentives are as a motivational means to an end. The segment on how the Rowe vs. Wade decision in the early 70s could have been a major contribution to an otherwise difficult-to-explain lower crime rate twenty years later was an interesting one and it's certainly food for thought. That pretty much sums up how I remember feeling about it that there were some interesting ideas and a different way of looking at social issues using statistics. Oh, I just looked at the poster and I've seen all of the films listed except for ENRON and they're all VERY good documentaries and deserve your attention.