Money Monster, directed by Oscar- winning actress Jodie Foster, is a thundering indictment of casino capitalism. The thriller takes aim at not only the world of finance, but also reality TV and rolling news.
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Clooney’s performance ranges from the silly to the serious – and he sells each with the same passion, especially during his absurd take on some of the cable financial news experts.
“There is not going to be a President Donald Trump”.
“There’s not going to be a President Donald Trump”, Clooney said at a Cannes Film Festival media conference Thursday for his film Money Monster. That sum, we learn as the narrative plays out, is the legacy of Kyle’s dead mother which went into the purchase of a house.
We have a man, a man who director Jodie Foster isn’t afraid to frame as an idiot and a rube, that’s essentially upset that he lost a bet no sane individual would ever make. Last year, Cannes organisers turned away a group of women because they were not wearing heels.
Asked if that meant the film backed Clinton’s rival for the Democratic ticket, Bernie Sanders, Foster said, “I’m not sure if that’s a Bernie issue, if anything that’s more of a Trump issue”. “24-hour news doesn’t mean you get more news. Their ratings go up because they can just show an empty podium and a caption saying “Donald Trump is about to speak”. Clooney has long campaigned to highlight the plight of migrants. Clooney, a prominent fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, insisted that Trump will not win.
Foster said the film keys into popular fury with the system. His cynical attitude is sharply jolted (an understatement this) when a highly disturbed young man called Kyle (Jack O’Connell, intense) Budwell sneaks onto the set during a live telecast and takes Gates hostage.
Lawyer Amal Clooney also hit the red carpet in an Atelier Versace gown, making a lovey-dovey appearance with her actor husband George Clooney (both above).
Money Monster opens everywhere Friday, May 13. But she insisted the public want to see movies “that make them think and feel and don’t manipulate them”.
Still, this part of the film, establishing the dynamics between Gates, Kyle and the director of the show, Patty (Roberts), who is on constant touch with Gates through an earpiece, is unsettled enough to keep the audience on the edge. Julia Roberts plays a harassed TV producer who has to keep in line her waning star: Lee Gates, played by George Clooney, the ego-crazed, silver-fox presenter of a TV show called Money Monster, giving stock picks and spurious shock-jock-type commentary on the market, celebrating unfettered capitalism by breaking into embarrassingly geriatric hip-hop moves with backing dancers.
The film had a mixed reception from critics.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts were all smiles Thursday in Cannes.
The film’s protagonist isn’t a whistle-blower at the highest level of the corporate ladder.
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“I don’t dare to think about that because, with Monster Hunt before the premiere, we all had question marks, none of us had imagined it would achieve so much, it surpassed all our expectations”, he told Reuters Television. Time Raiders will be out in July in China.
