Reviews: 'MONEY MONSTER' with George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, director Jodie Foster.

[appalachiablue]

Trailer. Stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West; directed by Jodie Foster. Opened May 12.

- Review: In ‘Money Monster,’ a Broke Investor Holds a Grudge and a Gun, New York Times, May 12, 2016.

“Money Monster” begins with a jolt of satire, proceeds through a maze of beat-the-clock exposition and lands on a surprisingly gentle, sentimental note. Along the way, this speedy, self-assured thriller, nimbly directed by Jodie Foster from a packed script by Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf, looses bullhorn blasts of topical outrage on matters of grave public concern. The financial system is rigged. The news media is corrupt. Millennials spend a lot of time in coffee shops.
But this is not really a movie intended to stir up populist anger. It assumes — correctly in this election year — that the anger is out there already and that nobody really needs to be told not to trust Wall Street or cable television. Unlike, say, “The Big Short,” “Money Monster” is not offering explanation or catharsis. Instead, it supplies a curious sort of comfort. (And also some pretty good laughs along the way.) Corporate bigwigs may be robbing us blind and celebrity pseudo-journalists may be lying to our faces, but as long as there are some old-school movie stars left in the world we can feel a little better about the state of things.

In other words, you will not necessarily learn anything here about how TV or high finance really work, but you will be invited to enjoy the illusion of such enlightenment in the skilled and charismatic company of Julia Roberts and George Clooney. Mr. Clooney, playing the Jim Cramerish host of a loud, slick investment-advice broadcast (also called “Money Monster”), is doing his most fully Clooneyesque work in a while. His brand is in full effect: the silver hair, the gravelly voice, the arrogant strut camouflaging a core of basic decency.
Mr. Clooney’s character, Lee Gates, is the kind of charming, egotistic broadcast peacock who requires a tough, honest, outwardly-cynical-but-secretly-idealistic, behind-the-scenes superego. That would be Ms. Roberts’s Patty Fenn. The two stars are rarely onscreen together — circumstances conspire to keep Lee on set, under the lights, while Patty sits in the semidarkness of the control room whispering instructions into his earpiece — but their interaction is the electrical circuit that powers everything else.

That everything else is a hostage drama wrapped around an ostensibly complicated global caper. Most of the action takes place in the “Money Monster” studio, but the claustrophobia — or the lingering threat of staginess — is relieved by visits to the sleek corporate suites of Ibis Clear Capital, a company whose stock, repeatedly plugged by Lee on the air, has recently taken a tumble. The camera also pops over to Seoul, Reykjavik and Johannesburg for a beat or two to remind us just how big this story is. ~ Continued.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/movies/review-in-money-monster-review-george-clooney-julia-roberts-jodie-foster.html?_r=0
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- Salon, 'Hollywood Liberalism at its Lamest', May 12, 2016.
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/12/hollywood_liberalism_at_its_lamest_money_monster_george_clooney_and_jodie_fosters_financial_crisis_drama_misfire/

[KamaAina]

1. That's right! Jodie's directing these days.

One more reason not to go to my class reunions. She was originally in the Yale Class of 1984 but had to take some time off because of the Taxi Driver fiasco, and so ended up with me in the Class of '85. "Yes, I'm directing now. What about you?" "Um, I'm a cube rat pulling down around $40,000 a year (chump change to most Yalies)."

[deathrind]

2. Looks good!

[appalachiablue]

3. Definitely will see it, though *Salon's review I just added to the OP was pretty rough, meh.

[appalachiablue]

8. The idea is interesting, esp. the Jim Cramer CNBC character and frustrated couple. I'll see it.

[bikebloke]

4. Caitriona Balfe is also in it.

My crush of the moment, so I'll watch it. She must have time traveled back to make the movie.

[Albertoo]

5. Read good reviews

[appalachiablue]

6. Do you mean you read these 2 reviews, or other, better ones which could be added here.

[Albertoo]

7. I read other good reviews elsewhere