Evergreen Movies

about the Stock Market and the Economic Crisis

We all, from time to time, love a good movie. Be it with popcorn or chips, at home or at the cinema, alone or with friends — it’s movie time!

Here below I have created a list with the best movies that are treating the topic of stock market and / or various economic crises.

They are listed in chronological order, starting from the newest and going to the oldest. My all-time favorite is “The Big Short”, and the more I watch it again and again, the more I understand better what really happened and how the 2008 crisis has started.

The Big Short (2015)

Based on the 2010 book “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” by Michael Lewis, the movie tells the story of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Directed by Adam McKay, this motion picture shows how four individuals bet against the banks leading to the biggest collapse of US housing bubble — and win!

This movie also shows what were the connections, at that time, between the housing market, the investment banks, and all types of securities (financial instruments).

It is a nice combination of a motion picture and documentary, and sometimes the action freezes and the character turns to the camera and talks directly with the audience. This is one thing that I liked in special, about this movie.

The Big Short won the Academy Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay. The film stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock, and Marisa Tomei.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The movie tells the true story of Jordan Belfort as a Wall Street stockbroker: from living the high life to his fall — involving corruption, crime, and the federal government.

It is based on the actual memoir of Jordan Belfort (2007) and it encompasses all major milestones in the creation, rise and fall of his brokerage house called Stratton Oakmont and of course, his own.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film was nominated for several awards. Lead actors are Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey.

Too Big to Fail (2011)

Based on Andrew Ross Sorkin’s bestseller book “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves” from 2009, this film showcases what are the causes that generated the 2008 great financial crisis on Wall Street and, implicitly, the economic crisis that included both North America and Europe.

If you want to understand how the financial system is working, and how the private banks are collaborating among themselves and with the national banks, then this movie is for you. Watch it for several times, and each time you will discover new ideas.

Directed by Curtis Hanson, Too Big to Fail was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards and for 3 Golden Globe Awards. The movie stars William Hurt in the role of U.S. Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, and Paul Giamatti in the role of Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Ben Bernanke.

Margin Call (2011)

Inspired by a true story, Margin Call is an American financial thriller directed by J.C. Chandor. The movie stars Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci.

A margin call is a generic term describing the situation when the overall value of the securities (financial instruments) owned by an investor or a broker, drops below a certain acceptable value. Of course, immediate action needs to be taken.

This film tells the story of the key people from an investment bank and their actions during a 24 hours period of the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

This movie has 8 wins and 24 nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is a 2010 American drama film directed by Oliver Stone, a sequel to Wall Street (1987).

The film takes place in New York City, 23 years after the original, and revolves around the 2008 financial crisis.

The film stars Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, and Eli Wallach.

The story of Gordon Gekko continues with his life after prison working with his future son-in-law, Jacob Moore, an idealistic stockbroker.

In his actions for taking down a Wall Street enemy and rebuild his empire, Gekko is trying also to repair his relationship with his daughter Winnie.

The movie has 1 win and 4 nominations, to various film industry awards.

Inside Job (2010)

Inside Job is an American documentary film based on the late-2000s financial crisis and is directed by Charles Ferguson.

Split in five parts, the documentary shows the story of how global financial meltdown caused millions of jobs and home losses through several global financial locations such as United States, China and Iceland.

Narrated by Matt Damon, the film has 8 wins including 1 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and was nominated another 19 categories.

Chasing Madoff (2010)

Chasing Madoff is a documentary film written and directed by Jeff Prosserman.

It tells the story of an investigator who tries for a decade to expose Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, which took away $18 billion from investors.

The Last Days of Lehman Brothers (2010)

This British documentary movie tells the story of how Lehman Brothers bank declared bankruptcy in September 2008. Is summarizes what happened in the weekend before 15-Sep-2008, which is the actual day of the bankruptcy declaration.

Written by Craig Warner and directed by Michael Samuels, The Last Days of Lehman Brothers was filmed in London and stars James Cromwell, Ben Daniels, Corey Johnson, Michael Landes and James Bolam.

Boiler Room (2000)

Written and directed by Ben Younger, this film is an American crime drama which tells the story of Seth Davis, a 19 year-old college dropout who tries to live up to his father’s high standards, a New York city federal judge.

Soon he joins JT Marlin, a brokerage firm, trying his best to get rich. But the job is not as it seems, and he finds himself involved in all sorts of trouble.

The film stars Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin, and Jamie Kennedy.

The movie has 1 win and 9 nominations.

Rogue Trader (1999)

Rogue Trader is a true story drama of Nick Leeson, a young employee of Baring Banks who is sent to Singapore to take a position of General Manager of a branch from there.

Soon he becomes the Baring’s key trader. Making a lot of risky trades, Nick founds out that Baring’s losses are up to £800 million.

Together with his wife tries to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. After that they try to come back to London, but he is caught and extradited to Singapore facing the consequences of his actions.

The movie is directed by James Dearden, stars Ewan McGregor and Anna Friel and is based on the book “Rogue Trader: How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World”.

Barbarians at the Gate (1993)

This motion picture tells the true story of F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco who decides to buy the company in 1988 but another two companies make their own offers.

The movie was directed by Glenn Jordan and written by Larry Gelbart and stars James Garner and Jonathan Pryce, Peter Riegert, Joanna Cassidy.

The film has 16 nominations and 8 wins.

Wall Street (1987)

Directed and co-written by Oliver Stone, Wall Street is an American drama film which tells the story of Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) a junior stockbroker and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) a wealthy corporate raider, through their activity on capital market.

The movie has won 10 awards including an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role: Michael Douglas.

I hope you will enjoy watching these movies, as much as I have enjoyed creating this list for you! Bring on the popcorn!

Article written by Aurel Rusu — founder of www.investeo.ro