Please list your personal favorite finance movies.
I expect to see a bunch of of Wolf of Wall Street's and American Psycho's but what else?
I am basic so my favorite is the Big Short.
Anything else you have to suggest?
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Guess I am basic too. I mean look at my username. Gotta love Michael Burry
I do. Steve Eisman too (aka Mark Baum).
Steve Carell did a great job on him
Gotta love "Wall Street" too. Although it's a bit older
The Pursuit of Happyness is a great movie. Doesn't have too much finance in it but the story is great
Billion Dollar Bubble (w a young James Woods) - if you can find it. It's really about a major computer fraud which brought down California's largest insurance company in the 1970s.
I will definitely give it a look thanks!!!
boiler room, doesn't every 18yo who watches that want to work in finance?
Welp time for me to go watch it hahaha.
enjoy! it's a classic
boiler room
I was going to say this too. Looks like everyone beat me too it.
Also Inside Job is a great movie
I have heard of that too. Has great reviews. I will definitely watch it!!
Margin Call in my favorite. It's about an investment bank at the beginning of the financial crisis. It has the most realistic feels of any finance movie I've seen, very much enjoyed it.
Smartest Guys in the Room is about the Enron debacle.
I will definitely check those out. The more realistic the better
Margin call is great, indeed.
Whenever I tell my STEM friends i want to work in high finance, they always ask me if I'm gonna be like the wolf on WS lolll.
OMG same. VC is totally different than banks too (although there can b druggies in any scene).
Ppl in school would always ask if the drugs are like the movie
Convinced my economics teacher in high school to watch Mr. Deeds bc of the investor meeting at the end.
Spent three days in a row having her ask me when it gets to the finance part and I kept telling her 5 minutes.
lmaooooo that's golden
Wham bam Dawson, AKA little Miss Slut-Slut
Although it's not *really * finance The Social Network is great and has Peter Thiel for like 2 seconds lol. Also the Winklevoss' not that anyone looks forward to seeing them
Yeah the Winklevi are definitely not the highlight of that movie. It is one of my favorites though for sure
Yeah loved when Larry Summers called them out. From his interviews he said that the scene was pretty close to real life and called them assholes.
Gained a respect for him I never knew I had after that hahah
even better
Trading Places.
Not only is it hilarious, it accurately describes commodity futures trading. It even ends with a legitimate trading strategy to exploit information asymmetries with actual floor traders at the NYMEX as extras. (and even the Amtrak trip from Philly to the NYMEX is accurate)
As an added bonus, it even spawned securities legislation. Dodd-Frank included the "Eddie Murphy Rule," making what they did in the movie illegal.
haha I was always intruged by the last scene with the orange futures short or whatever I had to watch it like 10 times to understand what they were doin
They were shorting FCOJ futures 'naked' (they didn't have the product they were promising to deliver) Because the Dukes had already been buying heavily they had pushed the price up to 140. (Sorry, I'm in equities, I don't know the details of commodities pricing) They were able to sell at 140 on the market's idea that the Dukes knew something nobody else did. When the real report came out, and it turned out that the Dukes had egg on their face, they were then able to buy enough futures to cover their short position at ~30.
I forgot about this movie. It was really good.
.
Wall Street (1987) always stood out to me as a cut above the rest. Likely because how the good writing and acting is. Also love seeing Charlie and Martin Sheen play father son. Michael Douglas also really nails his role, like he was born to play it.
This.
Not movies but recommend Billions and Dirty Money!
Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel
The Replacements. If you disagree you probably work in Accounts Payable.
Rouge Trader (the takedown of Barrings bank - important lesson in taking a loss) Trading Places (eddie murphy / dan aykroyd is a classic) Trader: A Documentary (Paul Tudor Jones, is a must watch)
These.
Sigh, I'll bite.
Favorites Wall Street - Near top finance film.
Rogue Trader - Default of Barings Bank. Barbarians at the Gate - 80s LBO Greed; Fall of RJR Nabisco. Duplicity - Corporate espionage. Smartest Guys in the Room - Enron Inside Job - Financial crisis; CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard loses his reputation. Glengarry Glen Ross - Closing sales. Margin Call - Fire sale of toxic assets. Classic line in the movie by actor portraying CEO, "Ways to succeed in this business. Be smarter, be first, or cheat." Trading Places - Classic. It's a Wonderful Life - Bank runs. Money and happiness. Pursuit of Happyness - Feel good Cinderella story. Big Short - Book was better, but movie is good. Too Big to Fail The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers Freakonomics - Book and Movie are amusing. Rollover - Solid movie. Literally could have been recut for 2008. History repeats. American Psycho - Can't believe I forgot this for the top! The Pit - Good documentary on the operations of a trading floor. Not for virgin ears. Betting on Zero - Captivating case study on Herbalife. I was hooked it was a facade.
Others Boiler Room - Just bad! Ben Affleck rips off Baldwin's speech from Glengarry Glen Ross. Characters drop racial slurs constantly.
Wall Street 2 - Could have been better. Went soft and turned into a love story with a future father in law bromance. Wolf of Wall Street - My beef with Jordan Belfort is he is a sociopath, liar, and crook. I don't believe half of the stories portrayed and don't like how he is profiting off his wicked ways making the entire industry look like a den of thieves. We should not be idolizing these people. Ca$h - Shot to DVD movie about struggling couple stealing money from a crook and having to repay said crook. It's slightly entertaining. Capitalism: A Love Story - Michael Moore garbage.
Indirectly Finance Related Blood Diamond - Supply chain for diamonds from Africa to Tiffany's. Thomas Crown Affair - Theft of artwork. Inside Man - Denzel Washington and Clive Owen showdown during a high stakes bank robbery. Heat - Classic bank robbery. The International - Organized Crime, Banking, and Government Menage Trios. Going in Style - Bank Robbery 101 Fun with Dick and Jane - Enron parody.
Will think of others.
Cobra
Fletch
Over the Top
Iron Eagle
Meatballs
Not a finance movie, but some may appreciate War Dogs
Monkey Business and Liar's Poker should be movies. A comedy and a drama probably. Maybe two comedies.
There Will Be Blood
Arbitrage with Richard Gere is very underrated.
That was a strange movie...
All of these are very good, I would also add this Italian movie on Parmalat's scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewel_(2011_film)
And also ' The bank '
Not quite about banking, but similar genre - Pirates of Silicon Valley is one of my favorites. It came out around 1999 and is the dramatized story of Steve Jobs/Wozniak starting Apple while at the same time Bill Gates was starting Microsoft and how they ended up clashing. They did a good job portraying actual events while making it entertaining to watch.
I also liked some of the Dirty Money episodes on Netflix. The one on Valiant Pharmaceuticals was my favorite.
Not a movie, but Halt and Catch Fire is one of the best (maybe only?) portrayal of the 80's VC landscape with the PC boom and internet. A shame it only lasted 4 seasons I really loved that show.
Here is a mix of series and movies, since - how does it make a difference! Mind well, every single piece of entertainment that revolves around a specific industry or line of work will either be prone to selection bias or exaggeration for entertainment. Hence, take everything with a broad lens and a pinch of salt and...You got the point.
Barbarians at the Gates: For getting an inside look into a world of supposed excess.
Margin Call: Just watch it.
Betting on Zero: Bill Ackman vs. Herbalife. For anyone entering high finance.
Spider's Web - Britain's Second Empire: A free documentary on YouTube. It has a conspiracy theory undertone, but gives a good perspective on the network of offshore trusts. You might as well learn a thing or two about them here.
Billions: It's gold, in terms of a story. But as many people from the frontlines of high finance have pointed it out, many facets of it are pretty exaggerated. Yet, will be worth all the time you put into it.
The Giant Beast that is the Global Economy: The show actually pulled off a decent short ride in explaining some interesting concepts about the global economy. The very first episode is on money laundering - and they kinda are able to hold your attention with a silly packaging of the way things roll.
Ozark: Delves between money laundering and the drug economy. Not really all about finance, but a good escapade from the everyday trying to be smart but falling on the face stories.
Silicon Valley: It's funny. It's entertaining and if early stage tech investments interest you - it will have an added layer of seduction for you.
Something Ventured: I personally haven't seen it, but I did see it in a few recommendations online. It covers the origin story of early venture capitalists who were chiefly responsible for setting up the modern day valley.
Succession: It has had one season so far and the story revolves around an 80ish year old media mogul, who is not leaving his company and his dysfunctional family which is dying to take the reigns in its own hands. Leveraged buyouts and debt and a few other terms make guest appearances here and there.
Did think about Silicon Valley instinctively, but it's true that there's a lot of (obviously) VC-related action in there.
Yes. Although the show is entirely from the perspective of the entrepreneur, it does dip into the VC side of things once in a while. If nothing, you get to see the politics of the VC business playing out.
Succession is supposed to be loosely based on the Murdochs
That was the first name I thought of, when I was done watching the very first episode. A media empire. An old man running the show. It was indicative.
Big short is my fav
But I could do without the scenes that break the 4th wall to explain finance jargon
I guess no one mentioned it so I must do it:
Working Girl, great comedy from the 80s with a lot of M&A
Others People Money: Danny DeVito doing hostile takeovers
If people want another old comedy there is Baby Boom where Diane Keaton works in McKinsey like consulting firm
Surprised no one said L'Outsider. Although it is French so it is of course less known, it portraits the story of Jerome Kerviel from SocGen, one of the biggest rogue traders after Nick Leeson.
.
The Informant is another one; oligopoly collusion 101.
Not a movie, but a TV series: Bad Banks - It's a German production set in Frankfurt, but very high quality and quite realistic imho. The protagonist works in structuring. It's supposed to show a hypothetical demise of DB. Also available on Youtube with subtitles.
Second this; Paula Beer is excellent as the lead! It should be available on Hulu where I watched it.
Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal is loosely related in that it's his job and there are a couple scenes here and there. Great movie though imo.
Margin Call
Wall Street
Rogue Trader
All of the good ones have been mentioned so I’ll add a loosely connected one -
“Falling Down” (1994). Michael Douglass plays a guy who loses his corporate job (defense contractor if I recall correctly) and completely loses it, going off on people who annoy him (there’s a scene where he’s waiting in line to buy McDonald’s breakfast - watch this on YouTube to get an idea of what the movie is like).
I think the way this character behaves pretty accurately describes the rage (that’s never acted on) that some people in the industry experience on a regular basis.
Falling down is a must watch. I doubt it can be broadcasted anymore due to racial undertones.
That is a great movie
Assault on Wall Street
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