Publications
Partners
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
A group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s establishes a get-rich-quick scam that turns deadly.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Billionaire Boys Club currently has a 9% percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and unfortunately, I think that’s right on the money.
This Wolf of Wall Street-like film has all the right elements to be a fantastic film: a well-versed director, a complex true-story and a stellar cast, but it squanders it. It takes all that great potential and turns it into glossy montages, soulless speeches about aspiring to be successful purely by having money and moments that seemed designed to made into gifs about being rich. It doesn’t tell us anything new about social structures, money or even crime, but instead drags until its murderous second half that I wish was more fleshed out.
It lacks the magnetism of director James Cox’s 2001 film Highway starring Jared Leto, Selma Blair and Jake Gyllenhaal. While that film captured me in quiet moments, this film left me uninterested and ready for the next thing to go wrong in the doomed character’s life.
Of course, the main issue that a lot of people will have with this film is the casting of Kevin Spacey but I would say that the casting is just one of this movie’s many issues.
To me, a bigger issue is taking incredible talents like Ansel Elgort and Taron Egerton and putting them in a film that doesn’t put a fresh spin on its influences, but is rather overshadowed by them.
Some elements that I did enjoy were the sets and the fashion worn by the stars. The beautiful homes and lavish details were transportive at moments. The soundtrack is also a lot of fun because it’s packed with those 80’s tunes that make you want to party like one of wealthy background extras at Spago (where a lot of the action happens.)
I think rather than watch this movie at the cinema again I would much rather rent Wolf of Wolf Street and then follow that up with Good Fellas and call it a night. Die hard Ansel Elgort fans and 80’s nostalgia lovers might enjoy this movie, but for everyone else I would say give this movie a miss at your local cinema.
