In three days I will be departing for the bright lights of New York City. Since freshman year of college, my two girlfriends and I have been talking about taking this trip and I am beyond excited to finally do it. Since I booked my flight, I have found myself drawn to books and movies that are NYC-focused. Perhaps it's preparation or anticipation, but, mostly, these three texts have made me think very poorly of the social elite and feel terrified of Wall Street.
1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Admittedly, I have never seen the original 1987 Wall Street, so I wasn't really sure what to expect of the 2010 sequel except that it had to do with Wall Street, money, and Michael Douglas. Well, as it turns out, Gordon Gekko (Douglas) was sent to jail for insider trading for a decent amount of time in the 1987 version and, when he gets out in the 2010 movie, his daughter (Carey Mulligan) is all grown up and dating a young trader on Wall Street (Shia LaBeouf). Can we say Daddy issues? Anyway, LaBeouf's character is a pretty legit trader but he also has a conscience, which apparently is rare of people who are obsessed with money. Well, his mentor kills himself after some bad money stuff happens (something about a recession and banks losing lots of money...complete fiction) and LaBeouf somehow crosses paths with Gekko and makes some arrangements so that young Wall Street trader gets some financial advice and old Wall Street felon gets some daughter time with the estranged Mulligan. Through a series of complicated schemes that are too technical for my number and logic-challenged brain, Gekko ends up screwing over the Mulligan/LaBeouf duo and stealing all of her money, Mulligan ends up preggers with LaBeouf's spawn and then leaves him when she finds out he's been doing some behind-her-back business with Daddy. In the end, Gekko ends up abroad and I'm pretty sure the MulliBeouf end up together.
To be honest, I didn't bond with this movie enough to love it. But, I thought it was interesting. I'm more of a words than numbers person, so I didn't understand 98% of the Wall Street financial trading stuff. I don't think that it's entirely necessary to understand that part, but maybe it would have helped. Also, Michael Douglas irrationally freaks me out, so I'm sure that didn't help the cause at all. On the up side, I thought the former Lewis Stevens (aka Shia LaBeouf) was really good and I happen to think that Carey Mulligan is adorable, so bonus. The movie has a pretty good moral of people being more important than things or money, but it doesn't do anything groundbreaking or shocking. Overall, it's a decent movie and worth the time to watch. Hopefully you know more things about numbers and banks than I do.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
2. One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
Candace Bushnell is the author of Sex and the City (among other books and columns). She is a New Yorker and, while regarded as a "chick lit" author, she writes far above the mindless steamy beach reads of others in the genre. She has a keen sense of characters and their affection for their (and her) beloved New York. She is mindful of the social separation among the up-an-coming multi-millionaires and society tagalongs that make a career out of schmoozing with the money folk. A review on the back of this book regards Bushnell as a modern-day Edith Wharton who writes about the upper-society New York of today how Wharton wrote of a similar society of the 1870s in The Age of Innocence (review of this book to come later). That being said, I did not like One Fifth Avenue.
Let me be clear. Bushnell is a talented writer and explores a society in a way that is rare in books of this genre. The reason I did not particularly like One Fifth Avenue is because it scared the hell out of me. In OFA, Bushnell introduces the reader to several characters, all of whom inhabit a renowned apartment building on Fifth Avenue. One is a movie-turned TV star, a few are writers, one is an elderly socialite/gossip-columnist, and one dies. The deceased is the owner of a gorgeous three story apartment that is coveted by all and eventually sold to a hedge-fund manager and his wife. Along the way, we meet Lola Fabrikant, a hot spoiled rich kid from Atlanta who thinks that she deserves all of life's luxuries. She begins dating/sleeping with Phillip Oakland, a writer in One-Fifth, who is really in love with the TV star. Oy, the love triangles. Then there's the Gooch family who is under the supervision of mother Mindy, a pointy snot of a woman who is married to James, a mild-mannered suddenly successful writer and mother to Sam, a teenage computer genius. The character list is lengthy in this book, but oddly enough, easy to keep straight. OFA basically examines the society of all of these different people who live in one building in New York. Stuff goes awry and people die and go to jail.
The plot isn't as important as the societal aspects that are examined. Money is a recurring theme that eventually takes over the life of the hedge-fund manager who becomes obsessed with, not only earning an obscene amount of money, but the power that comes with it. Basically, money-whether having it, needing it, or owing it- takes over all of these lives and ruins most of them.
The reason this book scares me is because of the possibility that there are real people who are like these characters. I realize this book is fiction, but there has to be some real life inspiration. Basically, obsession with money and fame ruined these people, or at the very least their relationships. Society is a fickle friend, and this book tells the stories of dreams lost and enemies revealed, all in one apartment complex. The book has a mildly happy ending, but it's not happy enough to forget all the crap that comes beforehand. I shudder to think what real life NYC high society is like.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
3. The Good Guy
One thing I love about Family Video's $1 movie special is that I usually end up with a movie I've never heard of. That's how I came across The Good Guy starring Alexis Bledel and Bryan Greenberg. I really picked the movie up because, in my unemployment, I became obsessed with Gilmore Girls (starring Alexis Bledel) and I fell in love with Bryan Greenberg in the movie, Prime, which I really liked, but pretty much no one else did. Anyways, I thought I'd check it out. It ended up being a semi-indieish film produced by Lionsgate. It also ended up being kind of similar to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Basically Bledel's character is a book-ish, obscurely employed young lady in NY who has a weekly book club. I forget how she meets her BF, but she ends up dating a guy who works, you guessed it, on Wall Street. A member of his team quits and he needs to fill the spot quick. He hires on the resident computer nerd, Greenberg's character, who is also quite book-ish. He's sweet and caring and not a whore, so the Wall Street dude makes it his mission to turn him into a money player. In their bonding, the book-ish guy and gal come across each other and there's instant attraction. And then Bledel's character finds out that the Wall Street ass is cheating on her and they break up and she ends up with her book-nerdy counterpart. The plot is not complicated, and honestly there's not a whole lot that happens throughout the movie. Nevertheless, I like it and I can't figure out why. I guess it was basically an examination of different personalities and such, but you'd think that there would be some element that one could pick out that makes it good. Much like the previously discussed texts, the whole prospect of tossing around millions of dollars like pocket change makes me nervous and the movie as a whole basically made me lose faith in any man that ever existed unless he's a gigantic fan of Pride and Prejudice and he can justify Lolita. But....I liked it. Watch it and help me figure out why.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
My apologies for this lengthy post and maybe someday I'll actually include some pictures. When I return from NYC, I will let you know if I come across any of these scenarios. I highly doubt it since I fully intend on steering clear of Wall Street.
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