Mad money

Oscar Nominee - “Reducing Game” - from the point of view of film criticism and exchange speculator

Mark Mark Baum (ex-comedian Stephen Kerell) is trying to warn others about the upcoming crisis, but he is not believed

The novelty of the rental, the smart comedy of Adam Macakea (filmed the TV presenter dilogy and wrote the script for the film Commission “Man-Assetment”) “The game for lowering”, received five nominations for Oscar, and in the main roles there-a unique representative set of stars. But watching this film is interesting not therefore. “Reducing game” is a unique frank and sarcastically detailed story about the financial crisis of 2007-2008. And at the same time, a universal recipe for how to behave during the economic apocalypse, in which Russia is in right now.

Anton Dolin, film critic

Tell the impossible

The word “recipe” is not random: among the heroes of the film, the legendary American chef Anthony Burden suddenly arises, who explains the effect of poorly wealthy mortgage bonds: it is like an non-stable fish that is embarrassing to serve on the table-but it will make a delicious soup and the visitor will not suspect anything. The power of the "decrease" is in clarity. Singer Selena Gomez, whose high rate in the casino, clearly illustrates the strategy of American banks in the crisis, and actress-beauty, Margo Robbi (in the role of herself), which gives the decoding of specialized terms lying in a foamy bath and dripping champagne, become the same explanatory guests in the film. Any-expensive to watch.

It helps, but only partly. The tragic nuance is that units understand the terminology and mechanics of economic processes, even many of them only pretend. What is there: as the “play for lowering” proves, and politicians sometimes show themselves with profane, and, do you believe, financiers, blinded by light bait. At the same time, the processes in question are not abstractions of higher mathematics or physics, but a cruel reality that subordinates the fate of absolutely all. As the final titer of the film resembles, as a result of the crisis of mortgage loans, millions of people were left without work without housing. Thus, this specific and complex film, which actually needs to be watched with the explanatory dictionary, is addressed to the widest audience. His message is extremely simple: people, you are foolish.

The main characters of the “Reducing Games”, in no way connected with each other, come to this conclusion. All are real personalities. The first is the eccentric doctor Michael Barry, walking barefoot and fanatically devoted to Havi Metall: he better thinks under this music. Christian Bale played this role with the usual brilliance, who, it seems, firmly decided to break with the image of a dark knight. The second is the suspended financial analyst Mark Baum (Steve Kerell), who has been looking for contradictions in the Holy Scriptures from childhood: the cynical businessman Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), warning about the upcoming collapse, comes to his aid. The third - who took two insolent young people under the wing (John Magaro and Finn Witrok) retired banker Bin Rilert, who has long been more interested in vegetables from his garden than exchange rates. In this role - Brad Pitt, he is also the producer of the picture. Regardless of each other, they decide to rely on a decrease - and, despite the general distrust and skepticism, the only ones are winning when the world begins to roll down.

Infinity risk

Perhaps much more financial fraud as such is striking in how the most pragmatic cinema of the universe - the American one - is taken for such risky projects. After all, films on economic topics, it seemed, could not be a lot of spectators by definition. However, the strange unity of capitalism and idealism led to a paradoxical result: films about brokers are filmed regularly - and often they are very solid, albeit incomparably with the success of blockbusters about superheroes. But the expanse here for screenwriters, directors and especially actors are incomparably more.

“The chef explains the action of poorly wealthy mortgage bonds: it is like an unfriendly fish that is awkward to serve on the table-but it will make a delicious soup”

The classic example is “Wall Street” (1987) Oliver Stone, in which Michael Douglas created an amazing image of the cynical and charming collar of Gordon Gekko. He returned to the screens in the 2010 sequel with the subtitle "Money never sleeping." In 2013, this juicy picture was overshadowed by the Wall Street Wolf, a virtuoso satire Martin Scorsese, in which John Hill and Matthew McConakhi brilliantly played, and, by the way, the above Margo Robbie, but above all, Leonardo DiCaprio, whose already bright filmography the role of Jordan Belfort will stay for a long time The most colorful. Yes, perhaps the audience could not always understand the essence of the cunning game that the heroes of Stone and Scorsese led, but the dizzying careers of frankly immoral heroes seduced the viewer invariably. The charm of power and money, slightly seasoned with a moral conflict, acted reliably even through a filter of the film screen.

Brad Pitt is not only an actor, but also a film producer

Apart against this background is the painting by Jay Sendor “Risk Limit” (2011), which was the first artistic analysis of the same crisis of 2007-2008. A dry and bitter conversational drama, ascended by American critics to heaven, talks about a handful of businessmen who learned about the upcoming collapse literally a night before him. Now everyone must make their choice, which will determine his future fate. One role here is brighter than another: Demi Moore and Paul Bettani, Stanley Tucci and Zakari Kuinto, Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey ... In fact, we have the tragedy of Shakespearean scale before us, although everything except the dog of one of the characters survive. By this picture, one can judge how important this topic is for an ordinary American viewer. He has some kind of promotions or not, he understands these matters or not in the tooth, and the financial news is watching on his favorite television channel properly. He knows: maybe they speak an obscure language here, but they talk about him with him. Hollywood is also aware, and therefore does not stand aside, attracting the most elite forces to the creation of films on economic topics.

The rates are growing

Even against the background of the venerable tradition, the “decline game” looks extraordinary. The authors did not add to three genuine stories about people who had foreseen the crisis, fictitious plot lines. The actors are excellent, play at the limit of opportunities, but neither fight, nor run, nor even lie or change them on the screen.

Actually, their only task is to get used to the roles of marginals in a society that goes crazy and refuses to notice it. And the task of the public is to collect attention in a fist and agree with the heroes, realizing how and why a stable, seemingly, economy collapsed.

Former Machu Ryan Gosling easily fit into a bank clerk costume

The Russian viewer of the McAke film may seem simultaneously mysterious and implausively brilliant. Even if you get out in terminology, you inevitably ask the question: is it really possible to anticipate a catastrophe of a similar scale, the approach of which neither bankers nor the government guessed?

The answer given in the “Reducing game” is unequivocal. In the crisis of mortgage loans - or, if you transfer the conversation to Russian rails, in the fall of the ruble and oil prices - not aliens and not a secret Masonic conspiracy are not to blame. This is always to blame for people who are at the head of state, and a little you yourself who believed these people. You can never believe the bikes about free cheese. In no case should you trust their savings to those who promise to increase them. And most importantly: you need to learn to think with your own head. Actually, the “play for lowering” is, first of all, the simulator who teaches this. A lesson for which it is just a shame to pay money - especially since the ticket to the cinema is relatively inexpensive.

The view of the speculator

Maxim Blanus, financial analyst

For a talented trader, money is just a side effect on the way to the goal

The painting by Adam Mackeya “Reducing” is based on real events, and this makes it especially valuable. And the point is not at all that with the help of simple and very visible analogies to an ordinary viewer, far from financial instruments and stock markets, explained the essence and mechanism of the American mortgage crisis of 2007-2008, which quickly turned into a crisis of the world economy. For a person who was already well versed in all this, a much more valuable idea was that the main characters, who strongly calculated the collapse of the market in advance, achieved their own and were able to enjoy the fruits of victory, which is expressed at all earned by billions. Money is only a by -product. One of the key phrases at the end of the film - “I chewed shit for two years, but I was right” - echoes with Maxim’s mouth in the mouth of another character “everyone is wrong, but I'm right”. And by and large the film is not at all about how to make money in a crisis. He is about people who managed to break the system.

“In the fall of the ruble and oil prices, the aliens and the Masonic conspiracy are not to blame, but the people who are at the head of state”

But not only about it. McCau was surprisingly accurately showed to show the life of an “honest” speculator. Not built into the system and shamelessly exploiting its insider and manipulator, on the side of which everything, including the government, and a person who earns his own intelligence and analytical abilities. Instant transitions from euphoria to panic and back, constant doubts about their own rightness, regular scandals with partners, clients, wife, friends - all this is the price that has to be paid not even for success, but only for hope for it.

The heroes of the film pass all circles of "Hell for speculators." They suffer losses, losing not only their own, but also clients. At this first and most difficult stage, the majority gets off the distance. It is not difficult to predict the collapse: many warned about the “bubble”, inflated in the American mortgage market. But to definitely predict when exactly this bubble begins to burst, which will become the “last snowflake”, which will launch an avalanche of the crisis, is almost impossible. And in order to “eat shit” for two years, really iron nerves are needed. Most are enough for a couple of months.

It was not without reason that the performer of the role of Batman Christian Bale received a nomination for Oscar: here he is unrecognizable

Even if the first stage has been passed, the next circle is ahead, on which many of the survivors are tracked down, “temptation to profit”. After it has endured losses for a long time, return their own and client money or show a “decent” profit of 5-10%, many people read for happiness, and then regret hundreds of percent all their lives. The heroes of the film are helped by the fact that money for them is far from the main goal.

Finally, there is another line that goes far beyond the limits of financial speculation. Even at the beginning of the film, when one of the characters is aware of the scale of an impending catastrophe, it becomes uneasy for him on the street among peaceful, unusual citizens who are not interested, except beer and baseball. They are not to blame for anything, but they have to pay for the fraud of bankers, lose housing and work, and lose a fair part of pension savings. But the hero cannot prevent a crisis - he can only earn on it.

Photo: kinopoisk.ru