The Panama Papers

As a very poor guy now living like a house-arrested criminal awaiting the final call from someone that was created and blindly believed He Who Exists Everywhere Spies on You for your verdict and termination, this "Panama Papers" indeed convinced me there's indeed someone that's so cunning and so mysteriously creative to have ingeniously designed such complicated money laundry and tax avoidance scheme for the 1% of the richest people in the world. It also proved that this so-called divine being only cares about these 1% of human population and despises and disregards the 99% of the people on this planet.

This documentary should not just flashed those peoples' names so quickly, it should show a complete list of these peoples who involved in such scandal, and let's us have the chance to read clearly who they are, 1% of such smart@ses that we definitely could have the patience to go through and get to know Who's Who, especially the people in the Land of The Broken Dream, but the list could skip that name of the satanic arrogant Twitter in D.C., 'cause we already knew it.

This film only made me become even sadder since I have to refrain myself not to turn on the gas heater even it's so cold at night right now, just hope to save a couple of gas fee this month. Being one of the 99% of the population overlooked by that Guy controlling the Universe, "No pasa nada" is the only truth that I blindly believe.

The Panama Papers is an exposé of the financial underworld and named much like "The Pentagon Papers" exposé of 1971. It's a mostly interesting account of the lengths the super rich will go to hide their wealth - many times illegally acquired - from taxing authorities. And these are not your banana republic dictators but First World leaders, celebrities, and sports figures. However, the account dwells a lot on the investigative efforts of journalists worldwide and the risks to them, and though that's of some interest, it seems to be more the focus of the film. I wasn't quite satisfied with this approach, nor the way it concluded. Sure, many govt leaders were forced to resign but why not prosecuted/jailed? The film could've delved into that, too, but didn't.

I applaude the documentarians for this excellent depiction of the investigative reporting of the John Doe whistleblower. I only wish it had more of an impact on the American political system and wallstreet billionares. Instrumental in understanding the wealth gap and its causes and ramifications on society.

If you don't know much about the controversy, this is a decent movie. If you do, you won't learn much new. The film is usually shot well, although the intentional camera movement in confessionals was jarring. Very much a "puff piece" for journalists that gets a bit heavy-handed at times. There are some really great parts with in-depth information... then there will be another random journo bragging about something they did (or their amazing colleagues), and nothing detailed involving the papers themselves. There are limited interviews with actual political figures, prosecutors, or tax experts. I'd be more interested in the people who programmed the system used to analyze the leaked data, or an expose on Mossack's history and clientele.

Beware of the highly positive professional critic reviews on this one, as the angle of this film is particularly palatable to your average professional film critic who works for a journalistic publication.

If you followed the case when this blew up, this movie will not add much. Of course, there are some things I didn't know, but if you wanted more in-depth information about the scandal this movie will not help you. Kind of boring also.