MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Payback’
“Payback” has a singular, expansive mission: address the concept of “debt” in all of its forms.
Through the concept of debt, the film explores and connects the many meanings of payback, which range from repayment of a loan to revenge in a blood feud.
The documentary is directed by Jennifer Baichwal and features several stories, each involving a different kind of debt. Baichwal does not search for conclusions or solutions to debt, but explores debt in all of its intricacy and variety.
Issues of environmental debt are examined through an investigation into the aftermath of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf and the story of a blood feud and longtime land dispute in Albania is particularly interesting.
Issues of legal and economic debt are looked into, displaying the incidental, arbitrary nature of the legal justice system through the significance of ‘payback’ through imprisonment.
It weaves a picture of the potentially irrational, irascible power of debt as an ordering code and a dictatorial ruler of relationships.
BACKGROUND
“Payback” is an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 2008 book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.
“It was very intimidating to adapt a Margaret Atwood book,” Baichawal said.
A longtime fan of the author, Baichwal was inspired by her experience with Atwood’s latest non-fiction.
“At first I thought it would be just about money—a journalistic investigation of finance,” she said.
Upon reading the book, however, Baichwal realized that it presented something much more comprehensive and special.
“I read it, and it was just so beautiful and dense—it’s about the give and take we constantly engage in,” Baichwal said.
She acknowledges that Atwood’s work is not an obvious choice to adapt.
“It’s pretty dense and intellectual, and it’s my most abstract project yet,” Baichwal said.
WHAT YOU’LL THINK
“Payback” unfolds quietly and slowly; there is no single, reductive “point” to the movie. Baichwal’s film keenly skirts around all things declarative and heavy-handed.
Throughout her career, the director has received some criticism for shying away from the polemical. For Baichwal, however, this is a deliberate move.
“All of my films are kind of open ended in that they don’t advance a particular argument,” Baichwal said. “There are a lot of contextual realities that make things ambiguous, but that’s okay—just exploring and rooting around in ambiguities without coming to a hard conclusion is what I’m interested in.”
WORTH SEEING?
The film can be frustrating. Each of its stories could easily merit a much deeper and longer investigation. It never fully coheres.
Still, “Payback” accomplishes something. It elicits individual moments of significance and pathos. The stories and interviews are impactful, the individual voices honest and touching.
Though somewhat unsatisfying, the film’s disunity is appropriate. “Payback” undertakes something unwieldy.
Instead of urging some particular action, Baichwal encourages her audience to think about notions of debt that are too often taken for granted.
“Payback” is playing at Film Forum through Tuesday, May 8th.
This is getting a bit more sitjecbuve, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of neighbors will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users, the Zune Social is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.
Do not use debt consolidators. They are daigbrts and it will appear on your credit report anyway. You will land up paying them to do something you can do yourself. The money you pay them could be better used to pay down your debt.First of all you have to get organized. You have to have a good game plan to attack your debt. More on that in a minute. You need to stop using credit cards and all consumer debt. You can not get out of the debt hole if you keep digging it deeper by using credit cards every month. Stop using them now and cut them up. Use cash or debit for everything from now on. If you can’t pay cash, you can’t afford it. Period.Please read a bood called the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. My wife and I read it 6 months ago and, WOW, were we stupid with our money. This book will help shed light on the real consequences of using consumer debt and what it does to your personal finances. It will show you how to get organized, set up a budget, set up emergency funds, pay off debt, save for kids college, invest and many other things. We thought this was strange at first, but let me tell you is is really great. We have made a 5 figure change in our debt load in that short amount of time by getting organized and attacking the debt. The thing is to do a budget and stick to it this month and every month. The budget shows where your money goes and where it is leaking out of your wallet/purse. Once you get mad enough at yourself and your debt situation, you will be able to make the change in attitude real ease. You will stop losing money buying useless crap you do not need. You need food, gas, shelter, and the like. You do not need to eat at a restaurant, go to the bar, buy another DVD, video game, shoes, clothes, etc. Once you start saying no to yourself, you can really start winning and getting out of debt. Just this morning I finished my spending plan for the month of May. May is in the books and we paid off another big old wad of debt. It is cool to see the monthly balances coming down quick. The key is to get responsible and become an adult. Time to grow up and do smart things with the cash. You must be honest with yourself and look in the mirror. This biggest cause of most peoples financial troubles are right in the mirror. Ours was.Read the book and get on a debt reduction plan. This is a good plan. Nothing great was ever built without a good plan. This is the most important thing you can do in your entire life. Get yourself set up financially for a solid future.My wife and I can not talk highly enough about this plan. I hope it works for you as well as it has for us.Forget the debt CON solidators or any of these guys. You are smart enough to do this yourself. It takes discipline and character. It takes growing up and acting responsibly. It takes saying no. It takes using cash. It takes a budget. It takes not going out to bars/ restaurants/ movies/ vacations. etc.You won’t get your budget right the first month. Nobody does. Keep at it. Once you get good at it, you will see your balances dropping like a rock. You only have 11k in debt. You can work through it.Good LuckI wish you all the best