Best movie of this year hands down!

Overrated

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A vivid recording of the trauma that so many more people have experienced since things started getting nasty in the 80's.I liked the commentary from social service workers interspersed with the slice-of-life scenes. Even the venture-capitalist could see that Republican policies were tearing the *real* economy apart. The documentary illustrated painfully how peoples' lives can be torn apart by the vicissitudes of the business world. My eyes were welling with tears all through it.Canada has followed a parallel although not so brutal path of reducing real wages and benefits and shredding the social safety net. Cold comfort to imagine that we do not have quite such a harsh social landscape as does the USA.

I give it 2 stars bc it held my interest but what a load of rubbish. All these people get their power turned off bc the evil power company sends them $1200 bills and nobody had the money to pay it. BUT NEVER did the question come up, "How many months have gone by since you missed the first Bill?"I bet bills weren't paid for 4 months. They almost all mentioned having credit cards bills.....the problem is NOT capitalism the problem is poor money management . And going to college to be a nurse assistant is another bad choice. A good choice:become an RN don't have credit cards and you will be very comfortable and financially secure. and to see what those poor children were going through made me sick. Yes bad things sometimes come out of nowhere and we need a safety net but first we must rely on ourselves and BE PREPARED! Term life insurance is about $200 a year for $100k in coverage. That widow could have insisted her husband have some as soon as she got pregnant. But saving money and investing it is so boring, it's way more exciting to have a new car. I'm telling you something was very fishy about these "real lives" like the chick who kept saying she would be mortified if anyone knew her situation....DUH! You're in a movie blabbing to the world. Leftism is always about lying and this was pure leftist propaganda.

I notice the other negative review is from a clearly far right poster. I am not, I'm definitely a Dem, support social programs and am fully aware of the pain the recession created. However, that said, this film was still wildly slanted, inaccurate and to be honest, most of these people were never really "middle class", even at the best of times.How do I know this? I live in PDX and I was unemployed for an extended period of time during the Great Recession, I went on a million interviews--and I grew up very poor. I had even more difficulty because I was older (mid to late 40's) and had worked in a heavily recession hit industry (hospitality). IN fact I frequent lost jobs to vastly less experienced, much younger and hotter women. And all the subsequent jobs I've both turned down and ultimately wound up at paid significantly less than my previous one (though I now get to work from home and it's less stressful, so there are always advantages)...however...many of the points ARE still faulty: 1) The bulk of these people were never "middle class": one family lives in a trailer park; another was a family of 4 previously living on 40K in an apartment (just barely working class, IMHO), one family appeared to be tweakers; the recently widowed mom obviously wasn't middle class, because her husband's insurance policy alone would've saved her from her rapid descent into homelessness; I don't even understand the insurance issue lady because Oregon has SCHIP for uninsured kids,"terming" her employment would've made her COBRA-eligible during that period AND violated both federal and Oregon's more generous FMLA laws. The "college educated" woman was a CNA and technical college (trade school) educated. Had she bothered to research her job choice, she would've known what a mistake it was. And she never made more, even before the recession.2) There are plenty of minimum wage, crappy jobs in Oregon. Even at the height of the recession these were available. ACS (a call center) was always hiring and never met their recruitment goals. Awful job? Sure, but it paid $$$, so there were things you could do.3) Almost every family had other, both short and long term options available to them to avoid the destitution they all seemed to face: a)the mom skipping meals: Ramen is 5 packet for $1, every day at Fred's. Lame meal choice? Sure, but lame beats going hungry. Her husband had the most clear cut case of a civil rights violation I've ever seen, time to file a BOLI complaint. And again, plenty of other minimum wage jobs to be had.b) the actual previously middle class dad with the Down Syndrome kid, had parents maybe 100 miles away. Time to leave your beloved farm (that's already in foreclosure) and go live with them. Really, it might embarrassing, but it beats being homeless. Not to mention, he owed $457K on that house---even while working, how would he have EVER afforded that on $60K? Even lowish mortgage payments would've been at $4K per month----already more than his net pay. c) Princess apartment mommy with her suburban/SAHM fantasy world: Honey, your husband never made all that much money and his unemployment (if he opted not to take taxes out until tax time) would've already been very close to his original take home pay. Had you even cashiered part time at Target, your income would've ran about the same. Not sure why she felt working was worse than taking charity or being evicted. Not to mention, plenty of people (myself and my husband included) experience such setbacks in their 20's.I'm really not sure WHY he took a job that paid substantially less than he brought home on UI to begin with, especially since UI ran for 2 years back then (with extensions). Not to mention, 10 interviews is NOTHING! d) CNA Mommy had chosen her career----and I would've worked a second job in her situation.e) Hospital Mom: talk to the hospital social worker. It's their job to help you with this and work this out. In Oregon we have SCHIP, other catastrophic coverage, etc. Not to mention there are grants, etc to cover just that. Or simply declare bankruptcy. Plenty of options there----and the hospital would've worked with her to find them.f) Former VW finance dude: you're fully qualified to sell cars or even be a finance manager (the best paying job in the dealership). Again, yes they were hiring during this time frame. And again, if it worked out better for you to collect UI (I do get that), why wasn't your wife working? Back when most wives stayed home, they did go work to supplement the family income during periods of the breadwinner's unemployment. Because instead of living a soccer mommy fantasy, they looked to keep their family afloat. Nowadays, most moms DO work, yet this piece picked primarily non-working moms and portrayed them as victims. Very non-feminist.G) Widow mom and son were eligible for survivors' benefits, emergency housing, etc--not to mention, most jobs carry some sort of minimal life insurance for free. I get that she was completely devastated, but again, the well being of my child would be my first priority.BTW, the bulk of this wasn't even shot in PDX, but clearly Clackamas County---which is, ironically, largely Republican. And I bet you most of these people previously voted Republican.

American Winter (2013) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Another very good documentary from HBO takes a look at eight families living in Portland, OR who are suffering from being unemployed. The documentary crew spends time with the families as we see them struggle to pay their bills and many are forced from their homes and into homeless shelters. We get interviews with the adults as well as their children but also social workers who talk about the desperate times that so many Americans are in right now. As someone who works with people being on their bills, I thought this film did a pretty good job at showing how easy it is for someone to go from living comfortable to being poor in the matter of months. I guess some people can't fully understand how quick it happens unless they've been through it but this film does a good job at showing just how desperate these times can be. All eight families have different stories to tell but they're all basically wrapped around not being able to pay your bills after losing a job. Some of these people have been out of work for over two years and it's easy to see why the savings just don't last very long. Directors Harry and Joe Gantz really do a nice job at giving the viewer an idea of why these situations can turn so bad but they also question why more isn't being done. There's a lot of political talk about how the poor are taxed more and how companies are making record profits yet lower class families aren't seeing any benefits. I must admit that I find it shocking that this country can send so much money to other countries yet so many here are living below poverty. American WINTER is certainly an eye-opener and one just hopes that they're never in this situation.