I.O.U.S.A.Movie Reviews

Poster art for "I.O.U.S.A."

Gifts + Promos

Fandango Gift Card

Give the gift of movies with Fandango Bucks Gift Certificates! Design your own gift card, or choose from our collection.

Rock of Ages GWP

Buy Rock of Ages tickets to any Regal Theater Showing & receive a FREE song download!

Madagascar 3 Sweeps

Enter for a chance to win a wild family getaway to San Diego!

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    If they handed out an Academy Award for Most Gripping Graphs and Charts, this film would take it. Read full review

  • 88
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    There's no quick fix for a culture "addicted to debt," as one wag puts it in the film. But watching I.O.U.S.A. is a good place to start. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    It accomplishes an amazing thing. It explains the national debt, the foreign trade deficit, the decrease in personal savings, how the prime interest rate works, and the weakness of our leaders. Read full review

  • 80
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    This smartly assembled wake-up call concerning the nation's lousy spending habits proves to be as unexpectedly spirited as it is dispiriting. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Justin Chang

    Highly informative documentary reps a heady mix of charts, graphs and talking heads... superb packaging and timely subject matter. Read full review

  • 75
    The Onion A.V. Club | Nathan Rabin

    Though the filmmaking is playful at times, the film is essentially 90 percent message, 10 percent movie. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Walter Addiego

    Does about as good a job as any film could be expected to. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | Jeannette Catsoulis

    Equal parts enlightening and alarming. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Philip Kennicott

    There is a difference between the importance of a film's subject and the quality of a film's execution. And the execution is lacking. The film just isn't, well, very interesting. Read full review

  • 10
    L.A. Weekly |

    One graphic that I.O.U.S.A. doesn't include is a national balance sheet of our assets and liabilities, which would illustrate that the former is more than double the latter. We're in the black, and a film this deep in the red isn't something to be scared of at all -- or taken seriously. Read full review

Facebook Movie Fans