Money Monster

This review may contain spoilers!

Never been a big Clooney fan but he's making some pretty decent films this year! I would give Money Monster a 6.5/10.

This film surprised me because it managed to set a good pace and constantly build up suspense as the mystery of this corporate fraud is unraveled. The story does a great job os exposing Wall Street corruption and defames big business fairly well by the end of the film. The characters in this film all have their moment to shine and the development of central protagonists Lee Gates and Kyle Budwell is really good to see.

George Clooney, who played Lee Gates, is perfect as the over the top 'showman'; I liked that he transitioned from a bit of a show pony to a legitimate journalist exposing the truth by the end of the film. Julia Roberts, who played Patty Fenn, did a great job of leading the cast; she really did seem to become the conductor of this feature and guided the action well. Caitriona Balfe, who played Diane Lester, brought a strong protagonist to the side of corporate America; her defection was the moral backbone this film needed. Lenny Venito, who played Lenny The Cameraman, was a really charming and funny minor role; his dedication to filming the entire event made him one of the stand out characters. Emily Meade, who played Molly, was a rough and clearly stressed out expecting mother in this film; her explosion at Kyle was a really powerful scene and one of the best of the film.

However the best performance came from Jack O'Connell, who played Kyle Budwell. O'Connell's performance made Kyle quite an unpredictable character, you had no idea what he was going to do next. He was definitely dangerous and you felt like he had been brought to a breaking point. However despite all this you felt like Kyle's actions were fairly justified as the film progressed, you started to root for him; which made his death at the end of the film all the more shocking.

While the film condemns Wall Street quite well you can't help but feel the scene at the hospital that ends the film takes away from the final message a bit. Furthermore the cinematography needed a bit more work to be called stand out, there were some great shots but not enough to make this a visually appealing film. The editing was very slow, I was worried in several points that the film's pacing was going to be derailed by the editing. The score for this film was quite forgettable, there clearly hadn't been much thought towards creating a distinct sound for the film.

Dominic West, who played Walt Camby, was brought in too late to have any impact as the film's antagonist; West gives a half-hearted attempt at creating a villainous role but it's nothing we haven't seen before. Giancarlo Esposito, who played Captain Powell, was a very two-dimensional police captain in this film; the police presence wasn't very important within the film itself so you barely pay attention to Esposito. Christopher Denham, who played Ron Sprecher, is the victim of a rather crude 'erection cream' subplot in this film; after that's played it's course Denham barely has much to do. Condola Rashad, who played Bree The Assistant, has no screen presence in this film; her character serves very little purpose. Aaron Yoo, who played Won Joon, is given far too much screen time; when Yoo does use his screen time for actual dialogue we discover all he is good for is a rather convoluted spiel about technical jargon.