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Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

2017

Steve James

Documentary, Self: Neil Barofsky, Ti-Hua Chang, Jiayang Fan ...

5.8

124

Documentary A small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States' 2008 mortgage crisis.

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Was the bank being scapegoated? The movie implies that without proving it (...) [It] is diligent and, to a degree, absorbing"	NEU
United States	Stephen Dalton The Hollywood Reporter	"A modestly gripping real-life legal thriller with an appealing Chinese-American twist."	POS
United States	J.R. Jones Chicago Reader	"Engrossing (...) The family drama adds an emotional dimension to the strictly legal narrative"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"'Abacus: Small Enough To Jail' isn’t as grand or engrossing a treatise as 'Hoop Dreams' or 'The Interrupters', but in its intimate, well-observed way, the film is deeply moving and subtly shaming."	NEU
United States	Elise Nakhnikian Slant	"James unearths yet another story about ethnicity, institutional arrogance, and an underdog’s battle to overcome powerful forces woven deep into the fabric of American life."	POS
United States	Kevin Jagernauth The Playlist	"While the film never reaches the kind of emotional peaks of James’ best work (...) 'Abacus: Small Enough To Jail' is no less compelling."	POS
United States	Matt Zoller Seitz rogerebert.com	"There is history here. An entire world. And we finally get to see it. What happened to the Sungs seems horribly unfair, but this film is a silver lining. Everyone needs to see it (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS

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