"Nothing is beyond money for you, Robert. We both know that."

If I somehow had the power to make one pop culture postponement immune to the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be that of HBO's Succession. The deliriously watchable story of a perpetually embattled family sitting at the top 1% of the top 1% would, at a glance, never seem like the kind of thing I would have much interest for but, thanks to its impeccably-written characters, it's become the kind of dazzling series I absolutely adore. The fact that it'll be some time until I get to see the Roys again has proven to be a tough reality to accept. But it became just a little bit easier to do…

Arbitrage, Nicholas Jarecki’s debut feature film, is a cautionary tale cum corporate thriller as an obscenely wealthy businessman’s house of lies slowly falls apart around him. It’s a timely morality play about a man whose entire existence and empire is predicated on the lies he continues to spin to both his business colleagues and closest family.

Richard Gere, an actor who has been languishing in the wilderness of crappy direct-to-video thrillers, delivers one of the best performances of his career as the Machiavellian patriarch at the heart of the film. He plays a billionaire hedge fund tycoon desperate to offload his trading empire before his fraudulent activities are discovered. When he flees the scene of a car accident that results…

When was the last time you remember Richard Gere in anything memorable? Chances are it's quite a while, right? He's always been a slightly underrated actor who didn't always make the obvious mega star career choices, Arbitrage being an example of such a path. Nicholas Jarecki's debut feature mixes the high end corporate business world of financial brokerage with a high society family drama and principally the downward spiral of a multi millionaire who catastrophically entangles himself into a web of fraud, accidental death and adultery that not only threatens his own life but that of those around him. Gere is well placed as Robert Miller, said corporate CEO, all pressed fine suits, slicked back silver mane of hair and…

Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.98

This was a rather surprising film for me. I did not know much about it, other than that is had gotten some positive reviews and supposedly had Richard Gere giving one of his best performances.

In essence, the story is rather simple and straightforward. Rich man could lose it all because of a stupid mistake. That's really the gist of it. What makes this film so good is the character of Robert Miller. I was never quite sure if I should like him or hate his guts. He is such a complex character that you are automatically invested as enigmas are meant to be solved. And what this film does really well is…

I was pleasantly surprised by Arbritage. I thought going into it that it was going to be a run-of-the-mill crime thriller about ruthless, rich white men who deserved all the horrible things coming to them. I was wrong. This isn't really all that similar to films like Wall Street, which was my initial comparison. This is an excellent character study of a man who's made a lot of mistakes in his life that all come to a head at once. He goes to outrageous lengths to make sure everything plays out exactly right. He is under an enormous amount of pressure, so much so that the entire film seems to be vibrating with tension.

This film wouldn't have worked as…

62/100

Really sharp, except when it isn't. Jarecki instinctively knows how to use the medium itself to create tension and anxiety—there's an early sequence of shots, for example, that ostensibly establishes Gere's Master of the Universe on a plane but actually functions more like e.g. various aspects of Barton Fink's suite at the Earle, taking us into the thrumming jet engine via three precise compositions and then cutting to a soothing shot of coffee being poured within. Narrative's a bit melodramatic but sets up a wealth of incisive details, with compare/contrast elements like the NYPD's treatment of wealthy white suspects vs. young black accessories allowed to simply exist rather than be tediously underlined. Falters big-time when characters speak openly and…

FILM # 77 DECEMBER CHALLENGE 2

Richard Gere has a beautiful head of hair. Anyone with that sort of hair deserves to have a long and distinguished career. Lately our Rich has stayed away from those shitty romantic comedies and done some decent work for a change.
"Arbitrage" has many strands, all held together by Gere's performance. In a world where the mega-rich are even further removed from the man on the street, we should hate everything this man stands for. His stance of protecting his fortune by whatever means, fraudulent or not, reeks of the same selfish bullshit those Wall Street bankers came out with just before the shit hit the fan during Banking meltdown of 2008. Gere is…