Boiler Room Review
by Akiva Gottlieb (critical66 AT yahoo DOT com)February 29th, 2000
Boiler Room
rated R
120 minutes
New Line Cinema
starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Ron Rifkin, Jamie Kennedy, Taylor Nichols, Bill Nichols, Tom Everett Scott, Ben Affleck, David Younger
written and directed by Ben Younger
A Review by Akiva Gottlieb
At some point in their lives, many adults look back upon their twenty-or-so years of schooling and wonder where all the knowledge went; or better yet, what was the point of the knowledge? The characters in “Boiler Room” figured out early on that their upper-class prep school upbringing, and the limited amount of knowledge that came along with it, was all just preparation for fulfilling life’s most important task: becoming a millionaire . Seth (Giovanni Ribisi), the son of upper-class Jewish parents, knows that money is nothing without hard work. When we first meet him, he has dropped out of college and pays the rent by running a casino in his home. His overbearing father (Ron Rifkin), who happens to be a prominent judge, disapproves of his son’s work.
At this point, fate brings Greg (Nicky Katt) into Seth’s casino. He offers him a job as a stock broker at his small firm J.T. Martin, where Seth is guaranteed to make a million dollars in his first three years. Why pass it up, thinks Seth, if I can make money and please my father at the same time? So he decides to take the job and learn the ropes of telemarketing.
It only takes a few weeks for Seth to become one of the firm’s high-rollers, along with a group of guys who can quote every line from Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street”. But la dolce vita is spoiled when Seth finds out that the firm is selling stocks that don’t exist. An intense battle with his supervisor doesn’t help matters much.
First-time writer/director Ben Younger makes “Boiler
Room” into a dark, direct study of day-traders. However, the film lacks much of the immediacy found in similar films such as “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “The Firm”. Younger’s hip-hop style is anything but conventional, yet “Boiler Room’s” storyline paints by the numbers.
What makes “Boiler Room” an involving picture are the brilliantly smug performances from the young ensemble cast. Along with Ribisi and Katt as the leads, this young group includes Ben Affleck, Nia Long, Tom Everett Scott, Jamie Kennedy and Vin Diesel. The energy needed to make this film successful is provided by each of the aforementioned actors.
“Boiler Room” is certainly an ambitious first project
for Ben Younger, so it’s disappointing to note that the film’s elements never quite jell. The first portion of the film is often comical, while the final statement is largely depressing. Younger has built “Boiler Room” around one probable assumption. The world is one big stock market; some sell out, others buy in.
C+
Akiva Gottlieb
[email protected]
http://pictureshow.8m.com
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
