Film Review: "Money Monster" (2016).

"Not every conspiracy is a theory", it is something to consider after watching Money Monster. This thriller film directed by Jodie Foster and written by Alan Di Fiore, Jim Kouf and Jamie Linden. TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty Fenn, are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor who has lost everything forcefully takes over their studio. During a tense standoff broadcast to millions on live TV, Lee and Patty must work furiously against the clock to unravel the mystery behind a conspiracy at the heart of today's fast-paced, high-tech global markets.

The project was first announced in February 2012. In October 2012, Jodie Foster was set to direct the film. Foster's first choice for the role of Lee Gates was none other than George Clooney. Clooney was officially cast in July 2014, as well signing on as co-producer. Jack O'Connell and Julia Roberts were added to the cast in November 2014. By early 2015, Caitriona Balfe and Dominic West had joined the cast. Originally slated to shoot in early 2013, principal photography began in February 2015, after several delays. Filming took place on Wall Street in the Financial District, Federal Hall, William Street and Broad Street in New York City.

When commenting on the theme of the film, Foster said "the outrage is shared by all... one of the ways the financial world has been able to orchestrate the power that they have is by making it all so complicated so that regular people can't understand it... they created a system that's impossible to understand, so that they can benefit from that misunderstanding." She added further "And there are a few people who have the keys to that, and those people who have those keys are the ones that benefiting most financially... we know that's true, we've known that's true for a very long time... I think this film doesn't say the system doesn't work, I think it's saying that there are lots of abuses and there are lots of opportunities for abuses, and we certainly saw that in 2008. Now the financial world has to justify new ways to abuse the system."

The film stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West and Caitriona Balfe. The cast gave brilliant performances despite their characters suffering from lack of further characterisation that could have made them all the more real and compelling as the drama unfolds.

Money Monster is an outrageous, brilliant, cruelly funny, topical American film whose wickedly distorted views of the way modern media and financial world is and works, is at the heart of this film. It captures today's zeitgeist, a time when optimism is scraping rock bottom and that the character of Kyle Budwell is another voice that cinema has conjured up as an outcry to the ever complacent world. Even though the filmmakers stayed with tone of a lively journalistic story, the film's strong, fast-paced story tended to drag as it couldn't avoid the cliched reflection and/or a contemplative view of life.

Simon says Money Monster receives:

Also, see my review for The Beaver.