The Top 10 Garbage Cash Movies and ‘Dumb Money’

Dumb Money

Dumb Money 2023

Directed by Craig Gillespie. Paul Dano plays Keith Gill (Roaring Kitty), the Mass Mutual analyst turned WallStreetBets folk hero; Vincent D'Onofrio is hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen, Seth Rogen is Gabe Plotkin, and Nick Offerman plays Ken Griffin as the story's arch villain. America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Anthony Ramos, Talia Ryder, and Myha'la Herrold round out the cast. A docudrama reconstruction of the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, opening in 200 theaters before a wide expansion. Amanda and Chris call it watchable and often fun but ultimately shallow outside of Dano's performance; Sean hadn't seen it yet going into the recording.

Garbage Suits: Michael Clayton, The Insider, and the Corporate-Conspiracy Cousinthe neighboring subgenre that isn't quite garbage cash

Michael Clayton 2007

Tony Gilroy's corporate-fixer thriller with George Clooney. Proposed as the model for a sibling subgenre — "garbage soup," or garbage suits — since the stakes are corporate conspiracy rather than someone explaining a leveraged buyout.

The Insider 1999

Michael Mann's Big Tobacco whistleblower drama with Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, and Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. Grouped with Michael Clayton as garbage suits, not garbage cash.

Erin Brockovich 2000

Named as another garbage-suits entry alongside Michael Clayton and The Insider.

Duplicity 2009

Tony Gilroy's corporate-espionage rom-com with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts — called "a true garbage suit."

Thank You for Smoking 2005

Jason Reitman's tobacco-lobbyist satire, filed under garbage suits.

Up in the Air 2009

Jason Reitman's corporate-downsizing drama with George Clooney — also garbage suits, since "it's about layoffs."

What Makes a Movie ‘Garbage Cash’?the canon, the also-rans, and the ineligible

Margin Call 2011

J.C. Chandor's one-night financial-crisis drama with Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. Called the genre's most refined text — "a much less glib version of what Big Short does."

The Big Short 2015

Adam McKay's dramatization with Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Margot Robbie. Called "the garbage version of Margin Call," preferred for its starrier cast.

Boiler Room 2000

Ben Younger's directorial debut, a post-Glengarry Glen Ross portrait of a cold-call penny-stock chop shop with Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck's "I am liquid" speech. Called an essential text of the genre, even if it hasn't aged into an unambiguous moral lesson.

American Psycho 2000

Mary Harron's Christian Bale satire — "garbage cash, but great garbage cash," though most people would file it as a serial-killer movie first.

Money Monster 2016

Jodie Foster's hostage thriller set on a Jim Cramer-style finance show, with George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O'Connell as the desperate investor holding the set hostage. Agreed to be garbage cash, but "not a good film," so no Hall of Fame spot.

The Accountant 2016

Ruled out despite the title — it's an assassin movie, not a finance one.

Killing Them Softly 2012

Andrew Dominik's mob-enforcer film with Brad Pitt, praised as a capitalism metaphor but ruled out for working in metaphor rather than literal Wall Street jargon.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948

John Huston's gold-prospector classic with Humphrey Bogart — ruled out as being about the corrupting desire for money rather than the finance world itself.

Working Girl 1988

Mike Nichols' mergers-and-acquisitions comedy with Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, and Harrison Ford. Debated at length — a rooting-interest good person, not enough men yelling in a room — and left off the final list.

Other People's Money 1991

Norman Jewison's hostile-takeover comedy with Danny DeVito as a corporate raider and Gregory Peck. Credited, alongside Wall Street, with introducing the concept of the corporate raider.

The Boost 1988

Harold Becker's James Woods/Sean Young drama about a tax-shelter investor who turns to cocaine after a law change wipes him out — "kind of Limitless before Limitless." Neither host has actually seen it.

Pretty Woman 1990

Richard Gere's corporate raider romances Julia Roberts. Ruled out as being set in that world rather than being about it.

The Bonfire of the Vanities 1990

Waved off quickly as just a bad movie, not a genre entry.

The Hudsucker Proxy 1994

The Coen brothers' hula-hoop satire of corporate hierarchy — ruled out as not garbage cash.

Inside Man 2006

Spike Lee's bank-heist thriller with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen — seriously considered ("little bank takes big bank") but ultimately cut for being a heist movie without real financial jargon.

Wall Street 1987

Oliver Stone's original — ruled ineligible as a foundational text that later garbage-cash movies explicitly reference.

Glengarry Glen Ross 1992

Ruled ineligible on the same grounds as Wall Street: a referenced foundational text, not a genre entry itself.

The Wizard of Lies 2017

Barry Levinson's HBO Bernie Madoff movie with Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. Called "pure garbage cash" — watchable despite being nowhere near the year's 100 best.

Barbarians at the Gate 1993

HBO's RJR Nabisco leveraged-buyout docudrama, cited alongside Other People's Money as an early education in corporate-raider mechanics.

The Garbage Cash Hall of Fame

Margin Call 2011

First one in, unanimously.

Boiler Room 2000

"An essential text."

The Big Short 2015

A no-brainer once prestige is taken out of the equation.

The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

In despite being "an absolute masterpiece" — proof a movie can be both.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 2010

The sequel goes in where the original doesn't. Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, and Josh Brolin's real promotional-tour bragging about their own day trading gets a shoutout.

Trading Places 1983

In without debate.

The Laundromat 2019

Steven Soderbergh's Panama Papers shell-company movie, judged not too noble to qualify.

Hustlers 2019

Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu — flagged as the list's only entry centered on women.

Brewster's Millions 1985

Richard Pryor has to spend $30 million in 30 days with nothing to show for it to inherit $300 million. Called "the last piece of the puzzle" alongside Arbitrage.

Arbitrage 2012

Richard Gere as a hedge-fund magnate trying to get out clean — "extremely specific about that world," the closing pick.

One Last Wildcard

Uncut Gems 2019

Adam Sandler as a Diamond District jeweler drowning in debt to loan sharks. Pitched as a final wildcard but ruled out — a true money movie, but ultimately a gambling movie without the trading-floor jargon the Hall of Fame is built on.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing Citizen KaneThe Wizard of OzScarfaceToo Big to FailA Beautiful MindWarGamesHidden FiguresOppenheimerOcean's ElevenOcean's TwelveTicket to ParadiseKillers of the Flower MoonBoogie NightsTaylor Swift: The Eras TourSound of FreedomThe CreatorStop Making SenseKraven the Hunter

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

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