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Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker and political activist behind Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, has a new target in his documentary War on Whistleblowers. The first part of the film covers a brief history of whistleblowers in America and how they positively changed the course of history. In the second part, he delves into modern day whistleblowers in the Nsa and military contractors and documenting the difficulties they face after coming forward.

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Films such as Inside Job and Super Size Me are compelling but preach to the converted. What happens when the lights go up?

As the credits roll on The Flaw, a new documentary on the financial crisis, and we learn the fates of the various interviewees, it's Andrew Luan, a former mortgage bond trader for Deutsche Bank, who has emerged from the meltdown best. Now a guide who provides walking tours (and handy narrative threads for documentary filmmakers) through post-credit crunch Wall Street, his business has been on the up since 2008. The Flaw – from In the Shadow of the Moon director David Sington – joins Inside Job and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story in cinema's growing oeuvre of rueful postmortems on the global financial system. But watching them, I sometimes wonder if their function is just like Luan's Wall Street walkabout: vicariously entertaining us with the spectacle of our own decline.

Episode Number: 7018 (February 1, 2011)

Guests: Leslie Dach, Michael Lewis

Segments: Mubarak will not run again, Thought For Food

Videos: Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Who knew Hardee’s had such a draw to Egyptians? Apparently those Ranch hand-breaded chicken tender wrappers are tastier than they look. And the genetically engineered food that talks to our gut brain kind of seriously creeps me out. Luckily the segment segued to a lovely little character break with a very classic line: “Unlike LOLcats, LOLguts can has cheeseburger.” And the Word of the Week Character break just added a non-genetically engineered cherry on top of the sundae of the sketch.

Stephen brought quite a few great points to the interview with Wal-Mart Vice President Leslie Dach. Stephen came up with a fantastic description of Wal-Mart “They’re like China, but with more Chinese products.” I also appreciated that the point was brought up again and again of how...

By Christopher Stipp

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I was able to sit down for a couple of years and pump out a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right Here for free.

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Terribly Happy - Review

You have to look at a performance by Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds in order to fully comprehend why Jakob Cedergren, who plays town cop Robert Hansen in Terribly Happy, deserves his own spot on the world stage.

Cedergren takes a character, an urban police offer who is exiled into a rural, remote village town after having a nervous breakdown, and twists it into a complex individual who has no predictability, no hints about what he’s going to do next. He’s thrilling...

BERLIN -- Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price has been a hot seller at Berlin's European Film Market, with several big territories jumping on the Robert Greenwald-directed expose of Wal-Mart's business practices. But the film's international rollout may prove difficult in regions where the U.S. retail giant has a strong presence, as EFM buyers express concern that Wal-Mart could retaliate against distributors who release the movie. "We have experienced some scared theatrical distributors," Greenwald said after a Wal-Mart screening in Berlin. "They are afraid that their other movies will be pulled from the shelves if they distribute my film."...

Wal-Mart appears to be making a pre-emptive strike at the upcoming Disinformation Co. documentary from director Robert Greenwald, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, due Nov. 15 on DVD. Wal-Mart sent a packet of press release materials responding to what it says are factual mistakes it dissected in the film's trailer, outlining "three errors in three minutes." The company also directed interested parties to a long list of criticisms of the director's previous projects, including nondocumentary made-for-TV movies. Based on the footage Wal-Mart has seen, the company fully expects Greenwald to make more untrue claims, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher said.

Brave New Films, the production company headed by documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald, plans to self-distribute its first film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices, the company said Monday. Brave New Films will launch the film Nov. 4 in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Directed by Greenwald, who helmed Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War in Iraq, the film takes a critical look at the impact of the retailing chain on local communities.