Looking for a great movie about money? Check this list out
If you’ve ever wondered whether greed is good, here is your chance to find out as Hibernation takes you through a number of defining financial cinematic gems to ever grace our screens.
Hibernation
Don't miss out on the headlines from Hibernation. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Movies and money go hand-in-hand. After all, they don’t call it show business for nothing.
As for movies about money, fortunes made can just as easily become fortunes mulched.
So weld shut that wallet, sew up those pockets, and learn all there is know about the almighty dollar on the big screen.
Just don’t go checking your super balance afterwards, OK?
WALL STREET
FOXTEL & TO RENT
Think of every high-flying entrepreneur there has ever been, and roll them into one. Give him the trophy wife, the spoiled kids, the mansion, the pool, the limo, the priceless art objects, the slicked-back hair, the striped shirt with the white collar. Voila!
Now your have your very own Gordon Gekko (played to unprincipled perfection by Michael Douglas).
Feed the crafty critter a daily eight-figure deal and he will do his baddest to prove that “greed is good.”
THE WIZARD OF LIES
BINGE, FOXTEL
The life and crimes of the notorious Bernie Madoff. Bernie who? How soon we all forget.
He was the guy that pulled off the biggest financial vanishing act of all-time.
On his very own, this seemingly brilliant financial adviser to America’s rich, powerful and famous made an estimated $90 billion disappear.
In its prime, the whole charade was propped up by the greatest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen.
These days, old Bernie is seeing out a 150-year sentence in the slammer.
A fascinating performance by Robert De Niro anchors a gripping tale. Co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer.
ARBITRAGE
TO RENT ONLY
Self-styled cash-magnet Robert Miller (Richard Gere) has accidentally put a half-billion-buck hole in his company accounts that currently only he can see.
However, it’s just a matter of time before the Feds will get wise and haul him through the courts.
So it probably isn’t the best time for the very famous (and very married) Miller to also accidentally kill his mistress.
A tycoon so cunning and devious he makes Donald Trump look like Donald Duck.
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
FOXTEL & TO RENT
A morality tale this most certainly is not. An immorality tale? That’s much more like it.
This is the true story of Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), the man who put the “broke” in stockbroker.
By his mid- twenties, this pirate in a pinstriped suit had amassed a personal fortune of $50 million.
A decade later, it was all blown away by a blizzard of cocaine and hookers.
Probably the last time legendary director Martin Scorsese will ever unleash the scorched-earth brand of filmmaking with which he made his name.
This is as unrepentant as Goodfellas, as unrelenting as Raging Bull, and as unforgettable as any of his best works. Co-stars Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie.
THE BIG SHORT
NETFLIX & TO RENT
Years ahead of the 2008 global financial crisis, a secretive band of maverick speculators spotted the US economy was standing on shaky, over-mortgaged ground.
So they “shorted” a monster bubble in the property market – in other words, they made a bet that house prices would plummet dramatically – and waited patiently for the big pop.
For what is essentially a data-driven story, The Big Short does a fine job finding the humour and the humanity in amongst the numbers.
Stars Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell.
THE BANK JOB
BINGE, FOXTEL
How does that old saying go? Sometimes to make money, you’re just gonna have to take money. Maybe not.
But it sounds about right to Jason Statham and his merry band of roughneck Robin Hoods, who tunnel their way into London’s prestigious Lloyds Bank in the early 1970s.
Based on the faint whiff of a true story, which deliciously implicated a member of the royal family (the late Princess Margaret, no less!) in the shonky smash-and-grab shenanigans.
THE COUNTERFEITERS
AMAZON
As opposed to The Bank Job, sometimes to make money, you’re just gonna have to print money.
This is another true story, but this time with a fascinating twist.
The master currency forgers are all Jews imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II.
At the height of their operations, they produced more British pounds than were in circulation in the UK itself.
MARGIN CALL
SBS ON DEMAND
Just in case you missed the final results of the last Global Financial Crisis, here is a quick recap. They won. You lost.
This superb drama, set on a single fateful evening before the big meltdown of 2008, communicates all too powerfully how it all happened.
In the darkened offices of a Wall Street investment firm, one cold, hard decision must – and will – be made by the coldest, hardest CEO you will ever meet (Jeremy Irons).
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS
UNAVAILABLE; CLIPS ONLY ON YOUTUBE
You see this watch? This watch cost more than your car?” So begins the greatest monologue on matters financial ever written, delivered by a malevolently mercenary sales guru played by Alec Baldwin.
Over to you, Al: “You think a customer comes in to get out of the rain? A guy don’t walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They’re sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it?”