Thursday, September 29, 2016

Movies about journalism have very complicated task to achieve. No only create a message that engage with the audience explaing everything about moral, values and the idea to inform the public as a civic duty, but also tales a story of the the reporters, investigators, the victims etc. Many films explored this messages in the past: Network, Spotlight, All Presidents Men, Shattered Glass, Good Night and Good Luck, Frost/Nixon.

In the film “Money Monster” directed by Jodie Foster, tales the story of a TV personality/guru Lee Gates (George Clooney) who stars in a TV show about commerce in Wall Street, “Money Monster” The director of the TV show is Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) a strong woman who is basically tired of Lee’s facade as a person in and out of the TV spectrum. Lee is arrogant and never goes by the book, for Patty is always a problem to deal with him, he do whatever he wants and get away with it As a consequence of Lee’s actions, that goes from been risky advising the audience what he consider is the best investments to make fun of the market itself. During the production of one of the shows it’s aggressively hijacked by Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) a viewer who lost his money thanks to Lee’s recommendations.

The film “Money Monster” is a well done thriller with a weak story. When you start watching it, you understand the pieces of the puzzle in a predictable way, but felt flat because some of the characters are been introduced in a dynamic TV style (Dominic West and Catriona Balfe), the development of the story seems to be self explanatory but you’re never fully aware of their actions and how they end up in the first place.

In a way the film “Money Monster” criticized the mayor social and economical issues in America, but also how mass media is becoming a mayor circus just for the purpose of money without caring about the importance of content these days. A reflection of that is how Lee make a variety TV show that also is focus mostly in the Wall Street market. The problem in the film is you try to tell the story of three mayor characters, criticism to the media and also explain how the stock market works, problem that cannot been avoid if you compare it to the films like “The Big Short” or “Margin Call”.

At the end Money Monster is a good thriller but with a story that confuse the audience and ends as a nice attempt to be added to the list of fantastic films about journalism.

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