Money Monster - Financial Advice Gets Explosive
- Thread starter Marter
- Start date
I'm usually not one to defend the financial industry, but this whole hyper-populist "burn the bankers" sentiment going around is a little tiresome. It should not have taken Margot Robbie taking a bubble bath to get people angry about the obvious BS that went on during the financial crisis, but it seems as usual Hollywood can't handle nuance, so it turns in to "everyone who works in the financial industry is trying to rob the poor little guy burn it all down" and softly encouraging domestic terrorism against unaffiliated parties as the only way to get back at the eeeevil conspiratoral bankers who are totally not Jews anymore because that's racist but we'll keep everything else about the stereotype.
If hey tried to get this one out the door for Oscar season, they're either too late or too early. And who are movies like this one and The Big Short made for? I go to movies to be amused and excited, to escape the real world, not reminded why it pisses me off so much.
But what you said is basically most of what Bernie Sanders says, as if just taxing the rich more will make everything hunky dory again, while his most hardcore followers would rather line up the bankers for the guillotine, or ship 'em off to labor camps in wherever's our Siberia. Bernie himself talks about revolution, [SARCASM] and as we all know, every problem is solved by those things with no negative repercussions whatsoever![END SARCASM]
There's really terrorist attacks on people related to bankers?hentropy said:
But what you said is basically most of what Bernie Sanders says, as if just taxing the rich more will make everything hunky dory again, while his most hardcore followers would rather line up the bankers for the guillotine, or ship 'em off to labor camps in wherever's our Siberia. Bernie himself talks about revolution, [SARCASM] and as we all know, every problem is solved by those things with no negative repercussions whatsoever![END SARCASM]
If you want a more balanced approach, take a look at Margin Call. Probably the best take I've seen on the GFC. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed The Big Short and, while only tangentaly related, The Wolf of Wall Street.hentropy said:
Maybe if you actually listened and paid attention, Bernie?s talking about a political ?revolution? where people get out to vote and become more political. Unlike what you?ve said, Bernie?s not said a single iota of pro-violence rhetoric you are insinuating. Also, last I checked, having bankers regulate banks helped lead to the Recession of ?08, especially when less regulations led to banks acting enormously risky with everyone?s money. And then have the gall of asking for a bailout because ?OMG Great Depression!? would happen if the bailout didn?t happen? And then the CEOs, investors, and board of directors of those banks getting multi-millions in bonuses and dividends with that same bailout, with no new laws and/or regulations implemented to prevent that unethical activity from happening again?Darth_Payn said:
So, finally saw it. I enjoyed it - #6 movie I've seen in cinemas this year, while Big Short is probably #11.
It might help me in that a lot of time passed between Big Short and Money Monster (referred to as BS and MM from this point), but I don't think it's a comparison that's really warrented. True, they deal with Wall Street and the financial crash, but they have different goals. BS is more an exploration of it, MM uses it as a backdrop.
BS is a film I enjoyed, but I was put off by its use of gimicks. Sometimes it worked, such as when the characters broke the fourth wall, sometimes it...didn't (e.g. the "bubblebath scene"). MM's plot requires leaps of faith to work, but BS isn't really plot driven in the same way. BS paints Wall Street as being a hive of scum and villany, whereas MM does have a distinct villain, but Ryan isn't portrayed as being any better, as pointed out by the CEO himself.
What MM also does well is that it taps into the information age - everyone's on Twitter, everyone is discussing the drama as it unfolds in real-time, the people of the world are depicted as being shallow, short-sighted, and selfish. BS does this as well. It also, like MM, is pretty damn funny in cases. But if BS is the film that sets its goals higher, I feel MM is the better executed film. And, IMO, execution trumps conception.
So, yeah. Enjoyed both, but enjoyed MM more. But I'll reiterate that some of the best films I've seen on this subject would be Margain Call (for more in-depth examination of the GFC, albeit as a microcosm) and Wolf of Wall Street (not the GFC, but so damn entertaining that you should see it regardless).
It might help me in that a lot of time passed between Big Short and Money Monster (referred to as BS and MM from this point), but I don't think it's a comparison that's really warrented. True, they deal with Wall Street and the financial crash, but they have different goals. BS is more an exploration of it, MM uses it as a backdrop.
BS is a film I enjoyed, but I was put off by its use of gimicks. Sometimes it worked, such as when the characters broke the fourth wall, sometimes it...didn't (e.g. the "bubblebath scene"). MM's plot requires leaps of faith to work, but BS isn't really plot driven in the same way. BS paints Wall Street as being a hive of scum and villany, whereas MM does have a distinct villain, but Ryan isn't portrayed as being any better, as pointed out by the CEO himself.
What MM also does well is that it taps into the information age - everyone's on Twitter, everyone is discussing the drama as it unfolds in real-time, the people of the world are depicted as being shallow, short-sighted, and selfish. BS does this as well. It also, like MM, is pretty damn funny in cases. But if BS is the film that sets its goals higher, I feel MM is the better executed film. And, IMO, execution trumps conception.
So, yeah. Enjoyed both, but enjoyed MM more. But I'll reiterate that some of the best films I've seen on this subject would be Margain Call (for more in-depth examination of the GFC, albeit as a microcosm) and Wolf of Wall Street (not the GFC, but so damn entertaining that you should see it regardless).