Freakonomics (***)

For those unfamiliar with the title, it’s the name of a 2005 non-fiction book subtitled A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. The economist was Steven Levitt, whose teddy-bear voice graces linking segments in this multi-part documentary. Also on hand is journalist and coauthor Stephen Dubner, who does a podcast that was an outgrowth of the book’s success. (There’s also a blog.) In the film’s four segments, prominent documentary filmmakers tackle subjects also explored in the book.

  

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock’s opening segment about baby names is typically (for Spurlock) whimsical, with lots of random man-on-the street interviews, “cute” illustrations and editing. It pretty much sticks with the data in the book, which has to do with differences how in race and class affect what people name their kids. While on the one hand it suggests that names matter much less than other factors in predicting success, it also shows that résumés with typically black names (Tyrone, eg) were less likely to get a callback than identical ones with a "white” name. However, it's unclear whether this effect is entirely due to the perceived race of the applicant or if some is due to the name itself. In fact, the segment never really pins down whether names have no impact on the way others perceive you, or a small but real impact. Still, it’s fun to watch.

Alex Gibney’s segment about cheating among sumo wrestlers is predictably more serious. His interviews and information go beyond the book to explore the role sumo in Kapanese culture and to draw a parallel between corruption in the sport and recent chicanery in financial markets, which he has also explored in Enron: The Smartest Guy in the Room and other films. The way the cheating was detected is also ingenious. (That part was in the book.)

Eugene Jarecki’s (Why We Fight) brief segment, called “It’s Not Always a Wonderful Life,” has more jazzy graphics plus an ironic juxtaposition of scenes from It’s a Wonderful Life in a segment that presents Levitt’s conclusions about legal abortion leading to less crime.

Finally, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp) present “Can a 9th Grader Be Bribed to Succeed?” Of the four parts, this one is the lightest on actual data (and fancy graphics) but is also the only to feature conventional storytelling, specifically about two of the students. It’s not the best (Gibney’s is), but it may be the one that most appeals to non-documentary fans.

From an informational standpoint, only Gibney’s adds to the information found in the book, though Grady’s segment adds emotional content. So it’s not a must-see for those who’ve read the book. For those unsure whether the hidden sides of things are worth exploring, this movie’s a mostly entertaining introduction.

IMDb link

viewed 8/25/13 on iPad [DVD transfer from Philadelphia Free Library] and posted 9/8/13