The most famous financial films have reinforced my study of the subject, providing me with pleasant and engaging moments. Through intense plots and often inspired by real events, these films have been able to combine entertainment and learning, helping me to familiarize myself with key concepts of financial language and market dynamics.
My absolute favorite. Inspired by real events and characters, it tells the simultaneous stories of three groups of people who discovered the basis for the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and manage to make huge profits from it. As you dig deeper into the financial structure that supports the world economy, increasingly Machiavellian aspects emerge.
#2. Wall Street
1987
A timeless classic, not to be missed. New York, 1985. Young Bud Fox works as a middleman at Jackson Steinem & Co. His dream is to work for Gordon Gekko, a famous and powerful financial shark. Soon he will start making a lot of money… but even money has a price.
#3. Margin Call
2011
The 24 hours of Sam, a banker (director of Global Markets) on Wall Street in 2008 , who is experiencing a heavy internal conflict: he does not know whether to share the choice of his CEO who intends to sell off all the toxic securities of the company in order to save it from bankruptcy.
#4. The Jewel
2011
The film is inspired by the events of the Parmalat crash in 2003. Leda is a large agri-food company listed on the stock exchange, constantly expanding towards new markets and new sectors: a real “jewel” according to its founder and owner, Amanzio Rastelli. Due to poor financial management, as the company’s debts grow, the managers begin to hide part of the capital in private accounts and investments until everything comes out.
#5. Boiler Room
2000
Seth Davis is a 19-year-old who runs an illegal gambling den out of his house near campus. One night, his cousin Adam stops by the casino to gamble, bringing along a wealthy associate named Greg Weinstein. Greg recruits Seth to join JT Marlin, promising him the opportunity to strike it rich, but not knowing that there is something shady going on.
#6. Trading Places
1983
A classic to watch every Christmas. Louis Winthorpe III is a haughty stockbroker from the “Philadelphia upper class”. Billy Ray Valentine is instead an insolent and swindling homeless man who begs while pretending to be a Vietnam veteran. The lives of the two cross paths by chance on Christmas Eve and because of a conspiracy behind their backs they will change forever.
#7. The Wolf of Wall Street
2013
Jordan Belfort begins his career as an apprentice broker on Wall Street, under the guidance of the eccentric Mark Hanna, who introduces him to a wild lifestyle, based on sex and drug use of all kinds. Jordan also learns to perform dishonest actions that allow him to earn a lot of money , but soon things will start to go wrong.
#8. Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps
2010
After almost eight years of imprisonment for the events that occurred in the first film, Gordon Gekko is released. He publishes a book in which he tries to warn the financial world of the imminent crash that will soon hit the disastrous American and world economy, however the entire financial world does not believe him considering him an old ruin of an economic system now outdated. The leopard can’t change its spots, but it can’t change its habits.
#9. Inside Job
2010
It begins by examining how Iceland’s financial market was heavily liberalized in 2000. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Iceland and the rest of the world entered a global recession. At the annual Federal Reserve conference, Raghuram Rajan, warned of the growing risks. Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008 , Rajan’s views were considered prescient and he was interviewed extensively for this film.
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