Review #1,086: 'Money Monster' (2016)

Wall Streets fat cats are the target of Jodie Foster's real-time thriller Money Monster, as a live broadcast of a tacky but successful financial advice show is turned into edge-of-the-seat entertainment by those watching. It's a satire of both our eagerness to lap up whatever gibberish were told as long as it promises to make us money, and our morbid fascination with watching live streams of death and destruction in the era of information. Although both subjects have been tackled before, it's an intriguing premise, especially with the acting talent involved. Sadly, Foster seemingly hasn't picked up on the skills of David Fincher and Martin Scorsese while under their direction, and Money Monster is a toothless, unfocused effort.

Financial expert Lee Gates (George Clooney) is about to air the latest edition of Money Monster, a show in which he dishes out money-making advice on the stock market in a cynical, over-the-top style. In the wake of a technical 'glitch' in a trading algorithm which cost stockholders £800 million, IBIS CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) pulls out of a live interview, leaving IBIS chief communications officer Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) to face Gates' questions instead. Once the show goes live, delivery driver Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) bursts onto the set with a gun and a home-made bomb jacket, demanding answers to why the $60,000 he invested in IBIS has vanished without explanation, leaving Gates and his trusted director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) to track down Camby and keep Kyle distracted.

The real-time format seems custom made for tension and excitement, but Foster displays little talent for setting the pulses racing. Her approach is to shoot clinically and unfussily, similar in many ways to Clint Eastwood, who has made some excellent movies, but whose films of late have been somewhat cold and careless. It blows its wad early on, serving up all the best moments before the film really gets going. Although he is hardly the buffoon he plays regularly under the guidance of the Coen brothers, watching Clooney dance to rap music while wearing an oversized dollar-sign necklace is a joy, and he plays the despicable cable-host reptile remarkably well. When he is quickly silenced by the gun-waving intruder, he stops his sleazeball routine and begins an unbelievable redemptive arc, losing the charisma in the process.

The same can be said of O'Connell, who channels the same repressed rage he did so well in the excellent Starred Up (2013), but is quickly subdued as Gates and Fenn start to ask their own questions. He is arguably the true hero of the film, if somewhat misguided, but Foster seems to lose interest in him while the rich take over and try to save the day instead. It's a contradictory message, and the decision to make the enemy one man with an expensive suit and an untrustworthy smile, rather than the masters of the universe running the world that the film should be attacking, reeks of a lack of ambition. It's a missed opportunity, and the performances are the only real positive I took away from the film. I would have been happier watching a movie focused solely on a man like Gates, and what helps him sleep at night.


Directed by: Jodie Foster
Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #690: 'Elysium' (2013)

Back in 2009, the film-viewing world began raving about a curious new sci-fi actioner named District 9. Boasting a satirical commentary on racial segregation and a funny-accented producer-turned-lead star Sharlto Copley, it signalled the arrival of a potentially explosive new director, Neill Blomkamp. Personally, the film embraced genre clichés a little to willingly for my taste, but it was an exciting little film with some interesting things to say. Four years later, Blomkamp is on similar grounds with Elysium, but this time the target is the social elite.

In 2154, Earth has been abandoned by the super rich, who have all packed up and headed to a space station named Elysium. There they live a care-free life in their mansions and all talk French, seemingly sipping wine all day by the pool. The biggest benefit is a healthcare machine that can diagnose a patient and heal them almost instantly. Back on Earth, things are tough. Robots police the dusty streets, and ex-con Max da Costa (Matt Damon) is repeatedly beaten down by the man when he's just trying to get to work. When an industrial accident exposes Max to a heavy dose of radiation, he is given 5 days to live. He must get up to Elysium at all costs with the help of his criminal friends Julio (Diego Luna) and Spider (Wagner Moura) in order to heal himself.

Like District 9, the social observations are sharp, with obvious parallels to be made with the American health system, where the rich can enjoy top-class treatment from the best doctors, while the poor are forced to choose which of their fingers they want sown back on. Not to say the satire is subtle - this is the cinematic equivalent of posting dog shit through an enemy's letter-box - Jodie Foster's evil Delacourt hires her psychopathic 'man on the ground' Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to shoot down any illegal immigrants attempting to land on Elysium to get some better healthcare. The rich here have no dimensions - faceless suits who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. But the anger in Elysium makes the film all the more absorbing.

Sadly (and, again, like in District 9), this comes at the expense of the story. Max is a faceless 'good' guy, but is given some humanity by the effortlessly likeable Matt Damon. His love interest is in his childhood flame Frey (Alice Braga), who has a child riddled with leukaemia, causing Max to question his priorities. It's all too predictable and overly familiar, riddled with distracting plot-holes and silly plot devices. Blomkamp's tech-fetish surfaces again as Max is given an exoskeleton that somehow makes him stronger, making him look a bit like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In a performance a world away from his ethically-challenged, bureaucratic weed in District 9, Sharlto Copley damn near steals the entire film. Bulked up and bearded, Kruger is a terrifying (albeit rather one-dimensional) psychopath, apparently capable of any horrific act. I could listen to his voice all day, which is the complete opposite of Jodie Foster, who delivers a strangely tuned-out performance with the strangest accent I've ever heard. She is simply terrible. But that's Elysium, a film that achieves as many hits as it does misses, neglecting the story for some cutting satire, boasting some astonishing CGI but delivering some sub-standard set-pieces, but overall, a pretty good movie.


Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie