Get your ‘Freakonomics’

From some of the greatest documentary filmmakers of the decade, people who brought us movies that really mattered like Why We Fight and Supersize Me, comes Freakonomics, new in stores this week. Examining the hidden side of just about everything, this documentary deployed five separate teams of filmmakers to dissect the differences and similarities between a host of issues, from the secret corruption underlying Japanese Sumo wrestling and the latest Wall Street shenanigans, to how ethnic communities choose unique names for children and why or why not pay-to-play grading systems may be the answer to the country’s crippled public school system. If there’s a thread that ties these pieces together it is the theme of incentives, and it serves as a welcome nudge to pick up a copy of the book that spawned the film: Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Rated PG-13.