Live, Until Death

Conditions: Oddly warmish

Film Review: Money Monster

I have to say I haven't actually paid attention to Jodie Foster's new career as a film director.  She's got a couple of films under her belt but this latest one, Money Monster, is on an entire new level.  George Clooney plays a flamboyant TV personality who is an expert on the sharemarket.  He dances, he prances, he wears elaborate outfits, you get the idea.  Recently he's been pushing stock for a tech company he likes, even though it recently suffered a dramatic drop due to some kind of computer glitch.  Little does he know his show is about to be taken hostage by a guy armed with a gun and a bomb.  Kyle, a working class dude, lost all his money in the glitch and is very angry. He wants to know what happened and he's going to find out on live television.

As the hostage situation plays out, Clooney also becomes curious as to what actually happened in this infamous glitch, and that's where the film gets really interesting.  Because as the SWAT team closes in a partnership of sorts develops between twitchy Kyle and Clooney.  Julia Roberts plays the director of the show, on the radio to Clooney throughout as she and he are seemingly always in synch as to what to do next.  It's a good performance from the two of them, showing the benefits of that kind of experience.  On live TV they gradually start to uncover what actually happened with this tech company, while at the same time prove just what a heartless place the world is.

Ultimately it's a really cynical piece of work, showing regular people tuning in to this hostage situation but not really caring if it could all go wrong.  It's really only Clooney who is able to build a scandal around the stock price crash and get people interested in finding the bad guy at the heart of it all.  Despite all the technology it's a real old fashioned thriller, starting slow and building steadily and steadily until you're totally riveted.  I really enjoyed it.  Four and a half monitors out of five.