FilmSnobReviews

Title: Billionaire Boys Club
MPAA Rating: R
Director: James Cox
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Taron Egerton
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

What It Is: When two underachieving friends in Joe (Elgort) and Dean (Egerton) start taking investments and funneling them into a company called BBC. A very mysterious term indeed. When they start returning investments left and right they land the big fish they’d always wanted in Ron Levin (Spacey) but as the investments get dicer and the pressure mounts how will our young financial savants handle it? What is Ron Levin’s true game with a bunch of amateurs with eyes (and pockets) bigger than their wallets?

What We Think: This movie is a piece of crap. Even 1987’s made for TV movie starring Judd Nelson told its story more coherently. What this amounts to is nothing more than an 80’d romp that takes itself somewhat too seriously and never stops to allow its convoluted narrative time to breath. There’s a ton of films coming out that takes place in the 80’s recently; they are of varying quality. From Summer of 84, which isn’t great but still a fun rip on the Stranger Things aesthetic to Hot Summer Nights which is a hot summer mess. At the core though are some phoned-in performances and a bit of overacting from Spacey. Ansel Elgort reteams with him for a second time (though technically first since this was filmed first) with his Baby Driver co-star.

Our Grade: F, A cluttered mess of a story told by a director with a history of cluttered messes. I wouldn’t recommend this film if it was the only film I’d ever seen. To be fair if this is ones only exposure to cinema I feel really bad for you. There’s so much better to be explored. Remember when Martin Scorsese made this film and it was called The Wolf of Wall Street, yeah we do too.