Movie Review: 'Money Monster' Raises Important Questions but Fails to Deliver Solid Action

Five words sum up this movie. George Clooney’s still got it!

No, you won’t learn any new Wall Street jargon from this movie. And it's not the critique of Wall Street that its trailer made it out to be.

"Money Monster" stars Clooney as cable TV host and stock-picking guru Lee Gates, who is a more handsome stand-in for Jim Cramer of CNBC’s “Mad Money.” Clooney’s character is a shameless playboy and supplements his show with goofy sound effects and hot dancers. His producer is Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), who finally decides to abandon Lee and his show for a better job during the movie.

Then there is the mystery with Ibis Clear Capital, a company whose stock Lee has been promoting on his show. Before the movie begins, this high-frequency trading firm loses $800 million in a suspicious “computer glitch,” resulting in a huge price-drop in their stock and the annihilation of their shareholder equity. The only redeeming aspect of this company is beautiful CCO Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe), who seems unaware of the reasons behind the crash.

The oddball in this crowd of high-earners is Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), a low-wage worker from Queens with a habit of listening to Lee's show and investing his paltry savings into Lee-recommended losers like Ibis. After Ibis loses his $60,000, Budwell breaks into Lee's recording studio as Lee starts filming a segment of his show and forces him into a bomb vest on live TV.

Kyle makes his case very clear, and it is easy to feel sorry for him. This theme of liability—between the winners and losers that the financial system creates—definitely raises some good questions that the movie later answers in part.

This is when the pace of the movie changes and the plot becomes a little bit “messy.” There isn't ultimately enough character exploration of the Ibis CEO or of Kyle Budwell, so it is hard to feel anything real for them by the end of the movie.

The movie ends in a half-satisfying way, as Wall Street is scolded again by economists and pundits on a finance-themed talk show. But by this point we have lost interest in the question of liability. This only serves to show how distant finance and politics seem to the real people who invest in them.

"Money Monster" is not as successful as the "Big Short" or "The Wolf of Wall Street," but it is clearly another attempt at raising some important questions about the culture of the finance industry. How, for instance, do we stop such devastating instances of fraud in an industry with such an incredible emphasis on generating earnings?

Historically, a great deal of fraud (and criminal misrepresentation) has been committed by executives. Look at Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Healthsouth, or even Theranos for that matter—each of these crimes were committed because of the constant cultural pressure to maintain high earnings and beat the competition. With the way that financial markets work right now, people are motivated to commit fraud in order to stay on top.

Is there a way to change this unhealthy, short-sighted culture into a healthy culture of long-term growth generation? Maybe then shareholders like Kyle Budwell won’t have to bear the risk that the CEOs of the companies they invest in are nothing more than criminals.

Here is the trailer for "Money Monster:"