GGS 11.19 7 Deadly Sins: Greed
This week at Geek Girl Soup, we’re deep into our first deadly sin: Greed. Now, we know that not all of Wall Street is full of dirty rotten scoundrels. But it certainly is a theme in the film world. So, we’re discussing “Wall Street,” “Boiler Room,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “Gaming Wall Street.”
“Greed is good.” You all know the infamous Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) line from “Wall Street” (HBO Max). Yeah, not so much when it involves insider trading and trying to break up the company that your protege’s (Charlie Sheen) dad (Martin Sheen) works for. Can you say, “Prison time”?
“Boiler Room” (Hoopla or rent) features Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, and Ben Affleck as brokers in a not-so-legitmate investment firm on the outskirts of New York City. Ribisi has daddy (Ron Rifkin) issues and is trying to live up to dad’s high standards by giving up his in-house casino for a job as a broker. He discovers how the firm actually makes its money, gets tangled up with the FBI, implicates dad, and, well….
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (Pluto) is a biopic about Jordan Belfort (played hideously beautifully by Leonardo DiCaprio), the—trying not to resort to name-calling here—eventual convicted felon who ran a penny-stock investment firm (“boiler room”) and defrauded investors out of millions of dollars. Jonah Hill plays his best friend and business partner. Margot Robbie plays his second wife. And Kyle Chandler plays the FBI agent who brings him down and helps send Belfort to prison for 22 months. Are you seeing a trend here? This Scorsese-directed film is gorgeous though totally unsavory.
“Gaming Wall Street”(HBO Max) is a two-part documentary about the roller-coaster ride of GameStop stocks. It exposes the workings of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets and how they uncovered the collusion between Robinhood and Citadel. Narrated by Kieran Culkin, “Gaming Wall Street” is a fascinating and disturbing look at how the stock market can be manipulated by bad actors—all in the name of greed.
Next week we’re watching movies that are based on plays or musicals: “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (Apple TV+), “West Side Story” (Disney+), and “The Humans” (Showtime).
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