SOUNDBITE: Clooney, Roberts hit in monster film

SOUNDBITE: Clooney, Roberts hit in monster film

Money Monster, starring A-list heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts, tells the tragic story of two men caught up in a conspiracy that at times seems to mirror current events in the world. These two men are Lee Gates (Clooney), the host of the financial advice sleaze show “Money Monster”, and Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell, Unbroken), the young man who holds Gates hostage, along with his producer Patty Fenn (Roberts) and crew, after he loses all of his money based on a bad tip from Gates’s show.

This being Jodie Foster’s fourth picture as a director, it is a wonder that she doesn’t try and do this more often. Mainly known for her acting roles in such films as Taxi Driver and The Silence of the Lambs ( her a second Oscar for best actress), she has been working as a director since the 1991, with the release of her successful debut Little Man Tate. She continued working behind the camera with the films Home for the Holidays in 1995 and The Beaver in 2011, as well as directing episodes of the Netflix shows Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. To say she knows what she is doing would be a grave understatement.

Let’s take Foster off of the pedestal she so deserves for a while and talk about this film. Starting right off with Clooney’s Gates and Roberts’s Fenn walking to the sound stage and discussing the day’s episode of the the titular show, we already find that there is a type of emergency. Not 24 hours earlier, Ibis Global Capital’s stock has plummeted, which according to Gates in the weeks prior would be impossible. With the financial catastrophe in place and CEO Walt Camby nowhere to be found, questions are being asked but answers are not being given. Enter Mr. Budwell, who sneaks onto the sound stage with one goal in mind: getting those questions answered, no matter the cost. He brings with him a gun, two bomb vests, and a short temper.

What ensues is a rollercoaster ride of secrets and lies that  go all the way up to the highest level. The performances from Clooney, Roberts, and O’Connell are wonderful and really drive the film, but I must include those of Dominic West as Ibis’s slimey CEO Walt Camby, who for most of the film is absent, and Caitriona Balfe as the well-intentioned CCO Diane Lester, who tries to figure out what went wrong inside the company to which she devoted her life.

Of course, performances are not quite enough when it comes to film. Alan Di Fiore, Jim Kouf, and Jamie Linden’s original script gives an insight into the world of global finance, while also delivering a seething satire of the real-life people it portrays. Dominic Lewis’s score is definitely apparent, but never gets in the way of what needs to be said. Matthew Libitique’s wonderful camera work as cinematographer may be some of his best.

Is it a film for everyone? No. Will it be timeless? I don’t know. Does it speak to what we see around us? Without a doubt. Is it a well done piece of cinematic art? Absolutely. These are the reasons to go see it. These are reasons I personally loved it.