If documentaries could be classified according to a fictional genre, “The China Hustle” would be a horror film teasing a sequel now starring Ali Baba as the next Michael Myers.

| Jun 12, 2024

Another by-the-numbers doc about an ongoing financial crisis rooted in manipulation and apathy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2021

It isn't so much a lesson in economics as it is a film about due diligence and common sense.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2021

This makes for a fine companion piece to whatever our leader is up to with his raising of tariffs and jawboning about China's longstanding practice of stealing intellectual property from US companies attempting to gain access to China's domestic market.

| Jun 2, 2020

Apparently, investing in China is a terrible idea. Dense but important doc.

| Jan 27, 2020

It's a lot to keep track of, but Rothstein is a clever editor and the film flows so that the constant information dump never becomes overwhelming.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Dec 22, 2018

This documentary unveils some shocking facts about investments, and how few protections there are for investors facing this kind of scam.

| Original Score: A | Dec 3, 2018

US investors lose billions in 21st century fraud; language.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 10, 2018

... assembles some persuasive and detailed evidence. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide much hope for meaningful change.

| May 4, 2018

The China Hustle is one of the most disingenuous, cynical, and ultimately ugly documentaries I've ever seen.

| Original Score: 2/100 | Apr 26, 2018

Think the trade deficit is a source of economic concern? The China Hustle makes the imminent trade war look like a fight over small change.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 19, 2018

If all of this sounds dry on paper, it's remarkably propulsive and even entertaining on the screen.

| Original Score: 7.1/10 | Apr 3, 2018

This is one of those documentaries -- like "Abacus" and "Enron" -- that make you boiling mad at greedy bankers, ineffectual politicians and a financial system shedding regulations like the snakes that these people are shed their skin.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 31, 2018

It's impossible to watch The China Hustle without feeling a mixture of incredulous outrage and fury at all the corruption, all the complicity, all the injustice.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 30, 2018

With its cool graphics and satellite-eye view of global chicanery, this is an easy sit for people who enjoyed the comic fictionalizing of The Big Short.

| Mar 30, 2018

The frank, level-headed tone of the documentary does not transform into the righteous anger that such financial corruption calls for.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 30, 2018

In horror movies, monsters often lose their power to terrify once they come fully into the frame. But as Rothstein reveals the full shape and size of an ogre that has slipped into our financial markets, just try to calm your growing dread.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 30, 2018

The sleuthing is fascinating to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 29, 2018

Ultimately, it does what an issue documentary must do and nothing more: spell out a problem, underline its urgency, and leave the viewer wondering what, if anything, they can do about it.

| Mar 29, 2018

Makes a sound case for greater regulation of financial systems.

| Mar 29, 2018