Home economics

"As mortgage market 'meltdowns' and the environmental crisis bespeak its wider consequences. The film bursts the bubble of the American Dream of homeownership and reveals the deep human costs of suburbanization and automobilization. In candid interviews, two working mothers and a teenager speak about the social tolls of long daily commutes, racism, crime, the Protestant work ethic, and the meaning of home. Subtly and sensitively, the film explores the relation between our built environment and our daily lives, revealing a sad irony--home ownership is often achieved at the expense of the very values a home is said to represent."--Container.