Video: Let the Good Times Roll…

When New Jack City was released in 1991, times were indeed tough—New York City hadn’t yet seen Rudy Giuliani unleash his police force to clean up the streets; the dot-com and real estate booms hadn’t propelled Manhattan to epic heights of prosperity. But if the facade is better now, the times are tougher, at least by the measures above. First-time unemployment claims last month? Nearly double the “month” in New Jack City: 530,000 in September. Americans with income below the poverty line totals 47.4 million by at least one estimate. As for economic inequality—well, that’s an old story by now. Homelessness is only getting worse. And the national debt stands at $12 trillion…

What Happens When Upwardly Mobile Couple Hits Hard Times

The 1930s were a heyday for screwball comedies, rowdy pictures where complications were piled onto complications, until the characters reached their breaking point, crazy stuff happened, hilarity ensued and moviegoers went home happy. In the Great Depression, filmmakers used broad comedy to touch on issues of class and poverty, but kept audiences enthralled with plenty of slapstick that always found some upper crust heel choking on their silver spoon.

Which is why if you’ve seen Made for Each Other—especially when it was first released in 1939—it can only be because you’re a Jimmy Stewart and/or Carole Lombard completist.

On December 12, 1939 producer David O. Selznick changed the course of Hollywood history when Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta. It was the centerpiece of his filmic legacy and overshadowed Made for Each Other, a simple comedy that hit closer to home for many Americans: the upheaval on a young marriage brought on by personal finances…

The Recession Road Trip

You get laid off from your job. You file for unemployment for the first time. You’re wondering what comes next.

It’s a situation millions of Americans are experiencing right now. But as far as we know, only one of them packed up the peanut butter and jelly and embarked on a three-month road trip around the United States, with the goal of documenting how the recession is affecting people. Make that two people—since 26-year-old Austin Chu is doing it with his brother, Brian.

So far Austin and Brian have traveled through New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, and Alabama, to name just a few, interviewing people they meet along the way. Today, they’re in Washington, D.C.—outside the White House, they accidentally met my brother.

We love their tips for taking a 21st century road trip on the cheap. But we’re even more into their videos, like their version of Fifty People, One Question, shot in Austin, Texas.