Mercado de Capitais

Equity (2016) was directed by Meera Menon. It stars Anna Gunn as Naomi Bishop, a high-powered Wall Street executive whose specialty is taking corporations public with IPO's. (IPO stands for Initial Public Offering.) She has taken nine companies public, but her most recent effort has fallen short. Now, she's working with another company, and she's fighting for the opportunity to take it public.

James Purefoy plays Michael Connor, a hedge funder who is Naomi's lover. Alysia Reiner plays Samantha, Naomi's assistant, who is loyal, but who has ambitions of her own. Sarah Megan Thomas portrays Erin Manning, who works for the federal government. Her job is to discover and punish corporate crime, and she's very good at it. All three of these actors do very well in their roles.

I enjoyed this film, because it gave me a glimpse of a world I don't know, and don't really want to know. The acting was superb, the sets were excellent, and everything looked and felt real. As I noted, I don't know if the plot was realistic, but the sense of wealth, power, and greed felt real to me.

I don't see this as a movie about a woman trying to break through the glass ceiling. I see it as the story of a hard-driven, ambitious person, who is up against some strong, vicious, and crafty competitors. That's the life she's chosen, and that's the life she's living. It's not a happy life, even if you win. There's hardly a happy moment in the movie. Be prepared for a tale of ambition and treachery.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It will work well on DVD.

Note: Equity has a horrible 5.4 IMDb rating. Normally, we would never go to a movie rated this low. However, when I looked at the ratings, it became clear that women liked the film, and men hated the film. As usual for IMDb, many more men than women vote. So, if men hate a film, that will lower its rating, even if women like it. My suggestion--ignore the rating and see it.

So, I'm not sure why, but I didn't have very high expectations. To say it's got a line up of quasi B-list actors would not be fair. But to be honest it ran through my mind. But I took a shot and was completely surprised. I was engaged from the beginning. Everyone is on point and drives an intriguing plot that kept my interest from start to finish!

Awful movie. From the point of view of someone who wants to sit down and watch a good movie, this was a very dull 90 minutes. Poorly put together, lazy writing, littered the unnecessary f-words

When I saw the trailer, it did peak my interest. It looks like Wall Street or The Big Short, but with a twist, as the woman is playing the main character. It's a little sad that that's enough to make this situation unique, but it is.

The movie does really focus on the main character too. Well, actually there is a big ensemble cast, which all have their very unique story that really drives the story,

But it does focus a lot on the development of those characters, and the story suffers for this. I just found the movie too slow in it's delivery of the story. I feel like I spent too much time waiting for the story to happen in-between getting to know the characters.

It would not be that big of an issue but I don't feel the big pay off of the film. All the character development and I felt nothing for what happens to these people after the dust cleared.

Equity was about business, but it was too much business. Too stiff, Too clean of a strike. Did not hit me like it should, which kinda sucks as it's one of those movies about cooperation that's pretty easy to follow, which is great.

So yeah, a uniquely told story got me hooked but it's too bland for me to care about the outcome.

http://cinemagardens.com/

I'm giving this movie a better review than most because I found myself engaged in the nuanced messaging, the attempt to do something different, and the fact that I felt entertained and went into the rest of my evening talking about what the movie was about. Any movie these days takes a risk when it scratches in new territory and the reviews here seem nit picky and unfair in some cases. For example, if dialogue is "slow moving" then that is a director/scriptwriter choice that in a movie that has thought itself out, like this one, you can see in the overall look and feel.

Look for example,at the early scene where Naomi is speaking at the women's empowerment group. Watch the camera scan and you see more of the lettering in the poster appear behind her. It goes from "men" to "omen" to "women" and her monologue relates to each as it goes by. This doesn't happen by accident, folks, and this is just one instance of nuance in the movie, including the ending which makes you have to reflect a bit and fill in with your own opinion and/or judgment about the state of how we regulate (or don't) the investment banking sector.

I like movies that make me want to pause the stream and talk about what we just saw. But that's just me.