Tim Old School – Boiler Room (2000)
With world stock markets currently on a roller coaster of ups and downs and with Bitcoin on a cliff dive, I decided to choose a movie review involving shares, stocks and scams. I could have gone for a big named movies such as Wall Street, Money Monster or even Wolf of Wall Street as they are all very relevant in this regard. However I wanted to find a movie a little more unknown. One that shook me up the first time I watched it and did so again this time round.
Boiler Room gets you thinking of the various options we have to deal with daily. It also exposes the battle we sometimes have between choices which are not simply black or white but are mostly in the Grey area. We follow the story of Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) a young talented entrepreneur who unfortunately keeps being successful in this Grey area. He battles his own demons, but deep down we know he is a good guy and we keep hoping he makes the right choices. Very similar to the people who love us in our own lives and want us to make the right choices. The opening line states “I didn’t want to be an innovator, I just wanted to make a quick buck”. This is so true as we experience lessons and cycles in our own lives repeatedly but still seem to repeat the same mistakes. We keep hoping our actions will deliver different results but we can all agree they don’t if we keep doing the same things. A clear message from the movie is that you always need to be selling ( or showing your best side) and that goes for anything you have passion for, otherwise you will not convince anyone they should support you. They use the term “f…king wood” which basically means supplying bad leads, I suggest you also get rid of “f…king wood” people or things in your life that lead you no where, as life’s too short to deal with negative hold backs. We also see first hand what it’s like to have all the money in the world but having no clue what to do with it …. It’s really sad. Another lesson is that if you cannot look at someone in the eye then you are probably doing something wrong, be honest with yourself can you look at those you love in the eye. The word floppy disc is also mentioned and immediately my mind thinks about how dated this movie is due to this technology term, but at the same time we as humans are exactly the same as our ancestors; still prone to greed and envy. Our human technology seems quite steady in this aspect, what a pity as we don’t evolve and always want to have more no matter the cost to others and ultimately to us. The closing lines are also powerful as Seth says “I think of all those what ifs, but really I only need to think of my next steps”. This is so true in life we always think we are in a situation due to past steps but we don’t think of our current steps which are the most important if we want to move forward.
Go on, I dare you start taking some new steps towards the future you know you want now. I leave you with one final line from the movie “I got to find a new job!!!”
