Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

The good news: the aerial photography, sets, and locations are magnificent: Susan Sarandon is endearing; the songs are good; and Michael Douglas steals the show. The bad news: the script is weak, the pacing is off, Shia LaBeouf is a bit annoying, and Carey Mulligan's talents are wasted. I would say to skip it, except the richness of the cinematography needs a big screen. So you'll have to determine your own priorities when you decide whether to pay an ever-inflating ticket price (how appropriate) to see this, set in the 2008 economic crisis, about a young trader (LaBeouf) who is dating the daughter (Mulligan) of disgraced financier Gordon Gekko (Douglas) in the sequel to Wall Street (1987).

Director of Photography Rodrigo Prieto (my favorites are listed in Broken Embraces, after which he shot State of Play) should get a nomination for his luscious work here, as should Production Designer Kristi Zea (Oscar nominations for As Good As It Gets (1997) and Revolutionary Road, also designed, among others, Goodfellas (1990), Philadelphia (1993), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Departed (2006), and The Joneses, the last an opulent display of wretched excess just like this one) and Set Decorator Diane Lederman (Summer of Sam (1999) and others). The views of New York City, from the air, on the ground, and out the windows of multi-million dollar apartments and offices, are spectacular, as are the furnishings in those apartments, and all the non-NYC places.

We expected more from director Oliver Stone. Though W. was a little disappointing, Stone did, after all, win Oscars for directing Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and for adapting Midnight Express (1978), and I thought Natural Born Killers (1994) was good and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and Talk Radio (1988) were brilliant. Stone has a cameo in this one, in an art gallery, when I laughed out loud at the art and therefore didn't hear the piece's name, which I hoped was funny, too.

The music, some by David Byrne and Brian Eno, is listed in its entirety on imdb, and you can listen to eight songs on reelsoundtrack blog. Imdb also lists a prodigious amount of trivia, if you care. Jack and I, who have consumed Cracker Jack lately, knew the prize gag was anachronistic, which is mentioned on the goofs page, but the Prius model is right for 2008, though imdb says it isn't. No matter what they say about the giant mobile phone, it's a good gag and it was in the trailer. We're glad Stone got Douglas (see my faves in A Solitary Man) to reprise his Oscar winning role of Gekko. If you, too, love Michael Douglas, you will like this article about him from the UK.