Leslie Cockburn's American Casino is a trenchant and engaging look at the mortgage crisis of the late 2000s. Since it was produced while the crisis was still at its peak, it has the feel of an extended 60 Minutes report or an episode of Frontline, but that doesn't detract from its value as reportage. Cockburn pointedly traces the cause of the crisis back to a rider that Phil Gramm appended to an appropriations bill in February of 2000, which excluded certain "financial instruments" from both state and federal regulation. Cockburn is unafraid of calling out the individuals and corporations responsible for the mess, from powerful free-market proselytizers like Gramm and Alan Greenspan to unscrupulous lenders, including banks like Wells Fargo. In the segments on inner-city Baltimore, Cockburn focuses on the insidiousness of the widespread availability and selling of subprime mortgages, and manages to debunk the notion that irresponsible borrowers share major blame in creating the crisis. The film delineates, to some degree, the impossibly complex machinations of the banks and insurance companies that led to the devastation depicted, but it serves a greater function in its focus on the human cost of the crisis, as hardworking people lose their homes and sacrifice their dreams, and neighborhoods poor and well-to-do alike descend into blight. The segments on Baltimore and on the environmental collapse of Stockton, CA, demonstrate how the impact of such corporate greed and hubris reaches far beyond those directly affected.
by Josh Ralske
review
