“Freakonomics,” the movie, offers a cavalcade of hot-shot documentary filmmakers, each offering a stylistically distinct presentation of the contents of the original book “Freakonomics.”
Among the six directors, and perhaps the best known, is Morgan Spurlock, the director of the documentary “Super Size Me.” His segment in the movie examines the effects of the names given to children. Great, candid interviews and real life occurrences having to do with atypical names give this segment a funny, ironic tone. It is among the best segments in the film.
Grace Larsen, a sophomore communications major, said she found the segment about why the crime rate has dropped to be more interesting.
“My favorite part was linking crime to abortions because I would never have linked those two together,” Larsen said.
The Freakonomics franchise is known for drawing correlations between things that many people would never think of. Tying abortion to crime rates is just one example of this. The franchise strives to shatter commonly held notions about everyday things, especially those that are less cognizant than most people would think them to be.
“We didn’t like the sumo wrestling part,” Larsen said, looking to the group of viewers behind her. “We thought it was too long.”
Larsen was not the only one who thought the movie was too long. Kate Horton, a senior business student, said she felt this way, too.
“It dragged on a little bit,” Horton said. “I’ve read the book before and the movie kind of follows the same plot as the book.”
Kate’s sister, Kelly Horton, a freshman integrative physiology major, said she didn’t read the book.
“It was really witty and the topics were applicable to people my age, so I really liked it,” Horton said.
Though certainly well-made and easily watchable, the movie seemed to be tailored to an audience not familiar with the books. To those who have read the book “Freakonomics,” the movie is the same information in a different medium.
There is no lack of material for “Freakonomics,” either. Since the publication of the first book they have released another book, launched a blog and started a free podcast available through the iTunes store and have even had featured columns in the New York Times Magazine. Because of this, the far-too-familiar content from the book was a bit of a disappointment in the film. But to those unfamiliar with the franchise, the film is a good place to start.
Because of the diversity of directors, the film has a bit of a serial feeling to it. At times it seems as if it were episodes of a television show with the common goal of trying to reveal the hidden side of everything.
However, each segment had its own feeling and tone.
The final chapter of the movie was an experiment, not featured in the book, about whether it is possible to bribe students into getting better grades. This segment followed two teenagers with a history of bad grades and observed how their grades changed when they were offered a financial incentive to raise their grades.
“Freakonomics” comes to theaters Friday.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Seth Gitner at Seth.gitner@colorado.edu.
