Fire up those Netflix queues. Lucas Joaquin recommends films to watch during the recession.

“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969, Sidney Pollack)

All of the action in this film takes place during a dance marathon on the Santa Monica Pier in 1932. Contestants dance for as long as they possibly can, with a ten minute break every two hours. The prize at the end is fifteen hundred dollars, though some just dance for the free food (which they must consume while dancing), or in order to be noticed by the Hollywood scouts they’ve been told will be in the audience. A film about exploitation, people’s perverse willingness to be exploited, and our insatiable interest in watching the results, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They,” is a great movie to watch when you have the recession blues, because, hey, those suckers got it way worse than you, don’t they?