Concursante

Excellent film! I couldn't see it on theaters (my town is not exactly a cultural prodigy), so I've discovered it hiring a DVD, feeling curiosity because of the extraordinary critics of the cover. I didn't even know this film existed! I still don't believe this movie is Spanish, it's difficult to believe that we have a director who can shoot this way. I also find the film brave, smart and even didactic in the best sense of the word, I've learned things that almost make my head explode. I'm still impressed for this lesson of real cinema, editing and performances. The structure and construction of this intelligent script deserves 10 points (my English does not deserve more that 4).

A normal guy ruins his life because a stroke of good luck. Will the director die for the same reason? I don't think so, for he shows much more than simple luck on the guiding of this extraordinary film about the truth and the appearance of truth, abut the luck and the evil of the banks, about the fast and the cinema itself. Rodrigo Cortes directs his first film with master hand, it's difficult to believe this is his first feature. I haven't seen his short films, but I'll try to, since the joy and good time this movie has given to me. Impactant editing, masterful script, extraordinary music, amazing directing, unbelievable acting (and can an actor be more handsome??)... At first I thought this film was going to be a pedant bluff, but at the minute 20 I couldn't stop watching at the screen, almost hypnotized. I'll never trust a bank again!!

One of the most incredible movies of this year!! Superb!! A half way between a Scorsese made in Spain and Paul Thomas Anderson with a little taste of Billy Wilder and even Tony Scott. You can rarely see a so talented young director. It has a great script, which explains the lies of the banks and the financial system. But it's not boring at all, as if a young Orson Welles decided to guide the daring formal structure. The best editing I've ever seen in Spain, I can tell you, magic, genius. And Leonardo Sbaraglia does his best performance until now, two thumbs up for him. Difficult to believe you're seeing this in Spain. It's an spectacle!! Intelligent, funny, terrible, fast, crazy, intelligent again... Much more than a movie!! It may not be perfect, but it certainly is a great great film!!

And that's because it subtly educates the viewer on the abject fraud of the Ponzi financial and monetary system, which many imo still do not understand. _Money as Debt_ and _The Moneymasters_ are two other (non-fiction) titles worth viewing for further background.

This movie's timing could not have been better, given the global financial system meltdown currently underway, as a result of yet another Ponzi scam, to wit, the astronomical heap of worthless over-the-counter derivatives piled on top of garbage debt-backed paper of all sorts (securitized mortgage loans, auto loans, credit card debt, etc.).

I think the script wastes a bit of time at the beginning with details about the main character that aren't really relevant to the story, and over the course of the last 10-15 minutes when building up toward a denouement which I would've preferred had been different. Nevertheless, I'd give it a 100 points if I could, for the way it masterfully weaves a subject that most people don't want hear about because it bores them, into an extremely entertaining fictional story brimming with a plethora of unique, charismatic and hilarious characters. Even the most despicable character radiates uproarious charm.

I found this movie by fortuitous accident and consider it one of the best I've ever seen. At times funny, at others depressing, it will forever change the way you feel about consumerism and banks. It chronicles the drastic change in a man's life after winning the highest paid contest on TV and how his immense good fortune became a real-life nightmare as his prize money fails to materialize and he is coerced to borrow against it. A brilliant way to teach about the real perils of borrowing, how compound interest works and how to avoid falling in the trap. I dare are you to watch a constructive, powerful and unforgettable movie today!