southwood
norsemytho group movie reviews
(Reuters) - In
the annals of Hollywood, Wall Street has not been treated very kindly.
From "Wall
Street" to "Boiler Room", "Trading Places" to
"American Psycho", the halls of finance are usually portrayed as
places of shiny excesses and dark hearts.
Now buzz is
building over a new contender, which could become one of the defining films of
Wall Street. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese,
"The Wolf of Wall Street" is slated to come out this November, and is
sure to have brokers scrambling for red-carpet invites.
But what do the
nation's foremost finance gurus think of the movies that put their industry on
the big screen? We asked a few for their favorites.
Name: Jim Cramer
Title: Host, Mad Money, CNBC Favorite movie: "Margin Call"
It is far and
away my favorite, and I have watched it multiple times. It is the most
realistic movie about Wall Street I have ever seen. When I first watched it I
was spellbound, because I could not believe how they got it so right.
From Kevin
Spacey as the manager who is fighting between the notions of protecting
ownership or protecting clients, to Stanley Tucci as the guy who was too honest
and had to be farmed out, to Jeremy Irons as the clueless guy at the top who
looks good: I've been in the industry 33 years, and we all know who these
people are.
I tell people
who are going into the business, ‘This is what happens on Wall Street. If you
can handle what happens in "Margin Call", then you're ready.'
Favorite scene:
There is a scene
in the boardroom where Zachary Quinto says that he got his graduate degree in
jet propulsion from MIT. That is exactly the way it is on Wall Street. There is
always a guy in the room with a degree like that. They even got that detail
right.
Name: Alexandra
Lebenthal Title: CEO, Lebenthal & Co. Favorite movie: "Working Girl"
Every time I
come across it on TV, I have to watch it all over again. It is more of a
comedic take on the industry - not totally accurate, but very entertaining.
By this point,
it has an old-school 1980s feel, everything from how mergers and acquisitions
were at the time right down to how the women dressed. Melanie Griffith is a
secretary from Staten Island who always wants more, and Sigourney Weaver is the
uptight investment banker who steals her idea for a merger. There are just so
many classic lines.
Least-favorite
movie: "Wall Street 2: Money Never
Sleeps"
It was a big
mishmash that just didn't get it right. It was really two different subject
matters: If they wanted to make it about the financial crisis, and banks making
bad bets, they should have told that story. If they wanted to make it about
high-frequency trading, they should have stuck with that.
But instead they
just threw everything together. It was very confusing - even for me, as someone
who knows the industry.
Name: Tobias
Levkovich Title: Chief U.S. equity strategist, Citigroup Favorite movie: "Other People's Money"
This movie came
out in the days of corporate raiders and takeovers, and Danny DeVito plays
Larry the Liquidator. He runs computer models to find undervalued targets and
focuses on a sleepy little company in New Hampshire.
It is kind of an
old rust-belt business making cable and wire, and he is chasing it down to
squeeze some value out of it. It is such a delicious role for him, because he
so obviously enjoys what he does for a living.
Least-favorite
movie: "Boiler Room"
It is about a
brokerage out on Long Island that is ripping people off, and that isn't the
Wall Street that I know.
Ninety-five
percent of the people I have worked with, over 26 years in the business, are
above-board, honest, and trying to make their clients money. That movie
propagates stereotypes that are just wrong.
Name: David
Rosenberg Title: Chief economist and strategist, Gluskin Sheff Favorite movie: "Wall Street"
The whole story
of the broker who rises to the top and then comes crashing down, is very much
like the contours of the stock market itself. That theme really resonates for
me.
Money can be
extremely emotional, but the financial industry is basically an industry of
trust, and what comes out of that movie is that honesty is the best policy. If
you interviewed Charlie Sheen's character Bud at the end, that is what he would
tell you.
Favorite scene:
I have always
loved the scene when Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah are having dinner together
in the condo, and he looks at his plate and says something like, ‘It's so
perfect, you almost don't want to eat it.'
To me that
personifies the whole movie: That what you see is not always what you get, and
that the appearance of wealth can sometimes be an illusion.
southwood
norsemytho group movie reviews