Film Review: Boiler Room (2000)

Many who are involved in cryptocurrencies, and especially those who became involved at the height of the latest bull run, might easily accept the view, heavily promoted by mainstream media, that the cryptosphere is nothing more than the realm of fraud embodied in pump and dump schemes. And they also may come to the conclusion that in the gentler and kinder past, when there wasn’t Internet or social media, traditional finance offered more honest and orderly business experience. In reality, today crypto scammers only continue with the activities and practises that were firmly established in offline world and, among other things, inspired films like Boiler Room, 2000 drama written and directed by Ben Younger.

Protagonist, played by Giovanni Ribisi, is Seth Davis, 19-year old college dropout who runs illegal casino in his home, catering to his former classmates. This operation brings enough money to provide comfortable living, but it is looked unfavourably by his father Marty (played by Ron Riffkin), highly respected federal judge who believes his son has brought disgrace to the family. Hoping to find less problematic alternative, Seth accepts job offer in J. T. Marlin, small stock brokerage firm. After closing the casino and finishing his apprenticeship becomes a broker and, just like many of his colleagues, earns so much money that he believes he would become millionaire in three years. Secret of his success is in aggressive telemarketing skills and ability to convince most potential clients to purchase stocks. Seth is doing well, but his curiosity makes him restless and he soon discovers that J. T. Marlin is nothing more than “chop shop” – an elaborate scam based on small and worthless companies whose price is artificially inflated through aggressive marketing; once the price reaches the desired level, the firm and its big stockholders sell all assets at profit while leaving their clients destitute. Seth soon realises that he would have to choose between his ethics and richness brought by taking part in shady business.

Ben Younger found inspiration for his script by applying for job in a firm that later turned out to be exactly like the “chop shop” depicted in the film (and Jordan Belfort, infamous stockbroker whose illegal activities would years later be depicted in Wolf of the Wall Street) claimed that Boiler Room was inspired by his firm). But the more broad source inspiration for Younger is the general climate of 1990s America, which was just experiencing unprecedented prosperity and economic progress, at least for those who were at the right time and right place to benefit from those trends. And those, among others, included people like young protagonist and his peers who caught an opportunity to become rich overnight. Like with many films dealing with white collar crime, Boiler Room has the problem of dealing with visually unattractive and not particularly filmable subject, which is rather difficult to comprehend for ordinary public. Younger tries to solve this problem by using protagonist as narrator who explains what is going on or what various words and phrases protagonist use actually mean. The cast is very good, starting with Giovanni Ribisi who, unlike many characters he played in 1990s, actually portray very intelligent and resourceful person. His partners are also very good, like charismatic Vin Diesel in one of his early roles and Ben Affleck in small but effective role of brokers’ instructor. Younger also uses opportunity for socioeconomic and cultural commentary. Young stockbrokers of 1990s have some sort of role models in 1980s yuppies and actually take fictional Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone’s Wall Street as their inspiration. But their culture is very different; while 1980s yuppies were trying to project the image of high culture and sophistication and associate themselves with political agenda of Ronald Reagan, their 1990s successors turn to MTV and rap subculture. In the scenes of their socialising you can see how they, consciously or unconsciously, try to emulate culture and manners of those who made their fortune by selling crack on the streets.

Those interesting cultural observations, however, aren’t enough to guarantee a good film. This was feature film debut for Younger and it shows. He made some beginner’s mistakes, most notably by using cliches that were supposed to make his film “cool” and more commercial. Character of black female secretary (played by Nia Long) is injected into the world of young white males not only to provide obligatory romantic subplot, but also to make Boiler Room more “politically correct”. The transformation of the protagonist from the enterprising young criminal into the moralist who desperately tries to do the right thing at the end isn’t handled in most natural and convincing fashion. The impression is even worse after confusing ending. Although Boiler Room represents an interesting glimpse into the past which isn’t that different from our present, those interested in subject matter would probably be better served by Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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