How to evaluate the movie "Money Monster"?

I finally got a chance to see this movie that I've been wanting for a long time. Although the evaluation of major foreign media is relatively general, this film is actually worth watching. It can probably be seen from the synopsis that this will probably be a financial fraud story similar to last year's popular movie "Big Short" in the framework of the Korean movie "Living Terror".

In the film, George Clooney plays a well-known financial TV host. He talked a lot in the program, recommending various popular financial products to the audience with jokes and funny dances. Funny and interesting programs are full of appeal, and many ordinary people follow his advice to invest.

But in fact, all his predictions in the program are based on the corresponding inside information, which makes his recommendations often invincible. Until one time, a stock he recommended had a so-called computer failure, which caused the stock price to plummet and evaporated its market value by 800 million overnight. This caused serious losses to the audience who trusted him.

The story of the film officially began. As usual, when everyone gave an exaggerated performance to explain the stock market, Kyle, a man like a courier, rushed into the studio. When everyone thought it was a new funny stalk, he took out his pistol, shot into the air and immediately hijacked the host and put on his homemade bomb vest.

Then he told all the staff to keep the live broadcast and said to the TV camera, I came today because I have something to say. Although I am the one with the gun, they are the really evil people.

Kyle is just a truck driver, earning 14 USD per hour. He has no obvious background and skills to mention. He is a miserable little person who lives in a cruel metropolis and is unknown. He looked at his soon-to-be-born son and the house loan, decided to give it a try with his mother's legacy, and used all his $60,000 savings to buy stocks that the host said would definitely win. But as a result, his life savings vanished in an instant, which made him desperate and ready to take risks and find reasons for all the people who suffered unknown losses like him.

Obviously, Kyle in the film represents ordinary people who know nothing about the financial market and investment industry but try to profit from it. Therefore, they will blindly believe in TV programs and seemingly credible news on the Internet, put all their eggs in one basket into their life savings, and foolishly believe that pies will really fall in the sky. This is exactly the same situation and psychology as many victims of online fraud in China.

The host represents the media who talk big in order to attract attention and improve ratings. They collect information, integrate resources, and then throw out opinions irresponsibly in the program, guiding the audience how to invest with confidence, just like giving everyone a beautiful and unattainable glass dream.

However, when the dream was shattered and it was hard to see, the class opposition divided by money broke out. This made Kyle choose the most direct and popular way, appealing to his anger and demanding the truth. At first, the host just fiddled carefully under Kyle's gun, hoping to find a way to compensate the victims, but with the continuous integration of information from all parties, he gradually discovered that the loss of contact was not a simple "computer failure", but a conspiracy operated by people.

So when the studio was held hostage, Julia played the producer who directed the joint program, the expatriate reporter and so on, and rushed out to collect clues about the incident and tried to find out the truth of the incident. The movie scene moves in three places: the foreground, the background and the location, presenting an unexpected event against time in a unique way, and the independent and tough attack of the police, making the whole event more exciting and thrilling.

This 98-minute film has been telling the story of hijacking. What's more interesting is that the film basically advances the plot according to the real time, which makes people feel that they are really watching the unexpected events in the TV news. The film did not spend a lot of time introducing the lives or personalities of the three protagonists, but naturally brought out their respective characteristics with the development of the plot.

The participants of the event, the audience watching the live broadcast and the initiator behind the accident formed three very distinct opposing groups in the film. Two details in the film are very shocking:

First, after the host found that Kyle was desperate and tried to control the reason for the stock price rebound by manipulating all the viewers, he told all the viewers in the camera and live broadcast his best laid plans very sincerely: as long as millions of viewers in front of all televisions and computers buy a little stock at the same time, a large number of instant purchases can raise the stock price, thus deceiving the computer algorithm. Higher demand creates value and stock prices will rebound.

In this way, the hijacker Kyle can get his own investment back, the host can also get corresponding assistance, and the audience can also share a piece of it. This can be described as a win-win situation.

But even if he expressed his true feelings and begged everyone to pay a small sum of money to save his life, no one bought it. The audience in front of the TV was indifferent and even laughed at his blind self-confidence. Some people may think that this is because the audience no longer believes in the host, but in fact it is because the audience can't see the possibility of making money.

After all, money plays a decisive role. As mentioned above, these audiences are people who know nothing about financial markets. They don't see the possibility of winning three games in the scheme mentioned by the host. All they know is that the stock evaporated 800 million overnight, and it's not worth buying.

Another scene is the end of the movie, and the hijacker Kyle, the host and the director finally find out the truth. Kyle, who achieved his goal, reluctantly released the so-called homemade bomb, but it was a pile of clay switches in exchange for a policeman's bullet and was finally killed.

The camera turned to all the people who watched the live broadcast in cafes, bars and streets. Everyone stared at the TV in silence or surprise. Five seconds later, the earth continued to turn. Passers-by in the street bowed their heads and walked on. The audience in the bar picked up beer and chatted with the people next to them. The little brother in the coffee shop kept his head down and continued to play his table football.

It's as if that scene never happened, as if the man who just fell in a pool of blood never existed, as if the shocking fraud case revealed on live TV had nothing to do with them.

Not only the audience, but also the protagonists did not continue to pay attention to the incident. They just watched another TV program, and the person behind it was investigated for driving a sports car. Instead, they talked about what to say in the next program, and even gloated over the huge ratings it brought.

Although the film did not start from this point, it is indeed a real reality. Five seconds, the audience's silence is only five seconds, and the world may stop for five seconds for the dead Kyle. But five seconds later, life is the same. There are too many similar real cases around us. As a film critic, I won't say much. Everyone knows that.

The "spectator" mentioned by Mr. Lu Xun is actually not only aimed at the people, but perhaps at the whole world.