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I.O.U.S.A.

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

tomatometer

86

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 65
Fresh: 56 | Rotten: 9

A potent and lithely constructed documentary about America's financial crisis, I.O.U.S.A grabs you with figures but holds you with irreverent wit.

100

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 0

A potent and lithely constructed documentary about America's financial crisis, I.O.U.S.A grabs you with figures but holds you with irreverent wit.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,633

My Rating

Movie Info

As the United States faces unprecedented financial crises, filmmaker Patrick Creadon explores just how America got to be in the economic mess that it finds itself in, eventually detailing just what the nation would have to do in order to prevent a bad situation from turning into an all-out financial disaster from which no citizen could escape. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

Apr 7, 2009

$0.6M

Roadside Attractions

All Critics (65) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (57) | Rotten (9) | DVD (1)

A movie that should be seen by everyone.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You will not likely forget the Jeremiad it presents about how the United States has been living on borrowed money -- and borrowed time -- for decades and now is presenting the bill for our extravagance to our grandchildren.

October 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I.O.U.S.A. is a clear, cogent and compelling primer on contemporary American economics and the not-so-small matter of how we ended up at the edge of a precipice.

October 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A documentary about the U.S. addiction to debt, I.O.U.S.A. could have easily taken the title of another movie released this week, What Just Happened?

October 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A sharp, absorbing portrait of our national debt crisis.

August 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Packed with facts, figures and the testimony of policy experts, the film is no wallow in wonkiness, but a surprisingly sprightly tough-love lesson in fiscal responsibility.

August 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Bottom line: The party's over. There's no such thing as a free lunch. America itself may be a bubble.

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

If more people had watched this film, they might still have their houses.

March 9, 2011 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

Well made, informative and genuinely terrifying documentary, in which the use of humour can't quite diminish the spectre of doom and gloom.

January 14, 2010 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

Think of this important documentary as Economics 101, a primer on how America and Americans spend, and what hardships the future holds for us unless we change the pattern and our habits quickly.

June 27, 2009 Full Review Source: About.com | Comment
About.com

Tough talk for tough times.

April 3, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

For a film starring the national debt, this is a good one. The expected tedious numerical research is accompanied by excellent graphics and archival footage that bring it alive. Is anyone listening?

February 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | Comment
Monsters and Critics

Practically begs audiences to declaim it essential viewing, rather than quietly convincing us

February 22, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Habit | Comment
Movie Habit

Fending off the global repo man

February 5, 2009 Full Review Source: JWR | Comment

I.O.U.S.A manages to keep this dense, dry information dynamic enough to be interesting and terrifying enough to be important.

December 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinerina | Comment

If you believe the terrifying documentary I.O.U.S.A., America is headed for a financial crisis of monumental proportions - and apparently, we are probably too late to keep it from happening.

December 7, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

Its aim is to raise awareness of an impending financial disaster if America continues acting fiscally and morally irresponsible.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

[A] timely documentary...There is a sense of urgency that propels Creadon's cautionary narrative as an alarming wake-up call to financial discipline.

November 20, 2008 Full Review | Comment
Movie Eye

Creadon avoids turning his film into a partisan slugfest, instead opting to focus on how our country as a whole must come together.

November 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Film and Felt | Comment
Film and Felt

This solid doc reminds us how unsustainable the current American economy is.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

A film with an urgent message that uses the medium to its advantage.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Unexpectedly entertaining, given that it's about dodgy accounting on an epic scale, the film predicts an economic cold shower that is about to douse America's prospects, thanks to its ever-expanding national debt.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

This movie is a scary, exhilarating blast of atheist common sense.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for I.O.U.S.A.

A very in depth documentary that breaks down America's economic problem into layman's terms and emphasizes just how big this problem is. The true horror of the situation is that the idiot leaders of the most powerful nation in the world have still not been able to foresee this problem and are not doing anything about

September 15, 2010
MovieGeek13

Super Reviewer

We're screwed. I like how people in the government spend our tax money on $450 tatoos, $20,000 Hawaiian vacations, and Girls Gone Wild videos. The sad thing is this film was made in 2007, talking about how bad Bush made the economy, and how the next President will hopefully make it better. How depressing...

September 28, 2009
puffchunk
Curtis Lilly

Super Reviewer

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Latest News for I.O.U.S.A.

January 8, 2009:
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November 19, 2008:
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Foreign Titles

  • I.O.U.S.A (UK)
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