Hey folks. Capone in Chicago here. The first great horror film of 2007 does not feature a raving lunatic with a knife or buckets of blood, but it does deliver a devastating sense of dread and an impressive death toll. What is the masterpiece of terror? It's a documentary about the American way of debt called Maxed Out, and it comes complete with all of its monsters ready to scare the shit out of you.

The monsters in question are the much-maligned credit card companies who will send applications for cards to the people least likely to pay them off in a timely fashion. If you make a habit of paying off your credit cards in full every month, these monsters don't care about you. College kids, the handicapped, the poverty stricken, these are their victims. And the result is sometimes suicide, homelessness, or a lifetime of harassment by debt collectors. Maxed Out seeks out to tell the story of both individuals ruined by debt and our country as an out-of-control debtor nation.

These banking institutions that issue credit cards are barely held accountable for their tactics in recruiting cardholders who are clearly high-risk candidates. Most legislative attempts to limit the companies' access to the young and the poor have been met with an army of lobbyists and easily bought politicians (including our president) fighting against such regulation. So college kids accrue so much debt so young that they see a lifetime of suffering ahead of them resort to suicide, and middle-aged women hide their massive debt from their families and go missing suddenly, only to have their cars (with their bodies inside) pulled from the nearby river.

Maxed Out may change the way your view your own spending or your attitudes about those who spend beyond their means. Unfortunately, it probably won't change the way you view our government or corporate America. But whatever you opinion of on these subjects by the end of the film, it's impossible to come out the other side unmoved. This is an expertly researched and finely constructed essay on the United States that every American carrying a balance needs to see. The film peppers its serious message with dark humor and cleverly used stand-up footage of Louis C.K.'s classic routine about his bank calling him to tell him he had insufficient funds. It's a great bit, and it underscores the film's resounding themes all too well. Take a deep breath, take stock of your financial situation, and take the plunge into this one, folks. It's worth it.

Capone