The Beaster braves hot air and the steamy atmosphere of THE BOILER ROOM to file this hot report with Father Geek, and of course all of you...
Harry:
You may remember me as the guy on talkback who called you a windbag. Well, I don't take it back, but someone pointed out that you do dish your info out to the general public for free, so I figure I'd help you out a little. Name is BEASTER, named so from an album by the great Bob Mould and his former band Sugar.
Last night I had the privilege of attending a screening here in NYC for the debut film from writer/director Ben Younger, titled "Boiler Room." I'm sure you've seen the ads for the flick on TV. Anyway, I ripped on you for talking about yourself so much in your reviews, so I'll get to the bread and butter:
PLOT SYNOPSIS (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
"Boiler Room" stars Giovanni Ribisi (in his first real lead performance, and it's easily one of his best) as Seth Davis, a kid from Queens who drops out of college to run a casino out of his apartment. His father, a judge, finds out about his operation and subsequently banishes him from the rest of his family. As Seth contemplates what has transpired, a casino customer of his one night brings in a swinging dick named Greg (Mickey Kat, who settles well into a villainous type role). Greg sees Seth's business acumen and offers him a tryout at a "brokerage" called JP Marlin.
This ain't no Wall St. firm. It's a small office in Long Island housing hundreds of Wall St. wannabes. Their aim is to get rich, as told by Ben Affleck to Ribisi and the rest of the firm's trainees on their first day. Affleck's role is small and effective, and he's given some of the movie's best lines.
Things go well for Seth. He does better than all the other trainees, and even shags the secretary who used to bang Mickey Kat's character. So all is right, right?
Please. Seth finds out that his firm's CEO is inventing phony businesses and using the brokerage to get people to buy into these business front stocks for bogus IPO's (Initial Public stock Offerings). Davis is torn between doing the right thing and exposing the operation or staying with the job his father now deems respectable.
This all comes to a rousing climax, but to go into it in detail is just spoiling it.
REVIEW
The best qualities about "Boiler Room" are three things. First, Younger does an excellent job writing his dialogue. All of it is authentic and true to that outside Manhattan bridge and tunnel wanna be rich crowd. People are that shallow, that competitive, and that mean to each other, men in particular. The dialogue is also all very funny. And it's very educational about the business it depicts. We learn the job as Ribisi's character learns it, and that's part of the fun.
Second, Younger gets good performances out of all his actors. Ribisi does an excellent job, as does Vin Diesel (as one of his allies), Kat, Nia Long (as the secretary), and Affleck (who seems to be getting a little chubby these days) playing a role that suits him to a tee. The man who plays Ribisi's father (his name escapes me) is also very good, particularly in the film's early scenes. Also in the film is guy from "Barcelona" (not Chris Eigemann), who plays one of the average-joe suckers Ribisi lures into a stock buy. His role is small but full of emotion without hamming it up.
Third, and this is the best quality about the film; when the plot brings in a criminal element, it doesn't become some violent mystery/thriller or "Reservoir Dogs" type flick. It stays as a straight drama, and that helps it remain realistic. Many filmmakers don't stay the correct course.
So is the film good? Writing and acting wise, yes. However, direction wise it's a disaster. Younger can be excused for being a first time director. But what is inexcusable is how he must have hired a complete an utter retard to man the boom mike. The mike enters the picture frame at least a dozen times during the film (and that's a low estimate), in some cases during very serious moments. The audience at the screening groaned, and rightfully so. One thing you should never do during a serious movie is remind people they're in a movie. And how Younger and the producers of the film didn't see this error while they were viewing dailies blows my friggin' mind. It virtually ruins what could be considered a very good film for early in the year. I think that the budget was so low for the film that when Younger saw that a majority of his shots were ruined, he felt forced to go with whatever he had. It's a pity. Had he paid more detail he would have made a truly good film.
As it is, the film is very entertaining and I recommend seeing it once it has come out in a VHS "pan-and-scan" format, to eliminate the errors I just outlined. I'm out. Harry, you're a bitch.
-BEASTER
