If you’re having a little money trouble, rather check out our list of the best financial crisis movies that you can watch on the available online platforms, often for free. Most of the plots of modern themed movies revolve around the 2007-2008 recession that impacted the entire world.
Of course, even a very good movie will not solve the problem, but you will definitely spend time interesting and useful, enriched with information, finding useful tips, positively tuned to overcome any difficulties or understand how to do exactly not. Enjoy watching. 🙂
The Big Short
- IMDB Rating – 7.8
- Genre: Drama, Comedy, Biography, History
- Production: USA / 2015
- Budget: $28,000,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $133,440,870
- Director: Adam McKay
- Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Marisa Tomei
The drama “The Downgrade Game”, dedicated to the mortgage crisis in the U.S. in 2007-2008, will help to understand the stock exchange and economic mechanisms, and at the same time in the schemes used during the financial crisis.
Christian Bale’s character, financier Michael Bjurri, trusts his gut and analytical talents. In 2005, he sees signs of impending disaster and decides to build himself a safety cushion by insuring his clients’ deposits for fabulous sums of money.
Several experienced brokers, seeing Michael’s activity, analyze the market and come to the same conclusions. They start playing down, i.e. they sell the borrowed shares at the current price and, after waiting for prices to fall, buy them back to repay the loan. The difference stays with the trader. Thus, the crisis becomes a means of serious enrichment for the heroes of the movie.
The movie is based on true events and won a well-deserved Oscar.
Tokyo Sonata
- IMDB Rating – 7.5
- Genre: Drama
- Production: Japan, Netherlands, Hong Kong / 2008
- Budget: $2,500,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $940,430
- Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Starring: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Yu Koyanagi, Kai Inowaki, Haruka Igawa, Kanji Tsuda, Kazuya Kojima, Koji Yakusho, Dandan
This movie is called the most horrifying in the career of director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, known for his horror films. But there is no mysticism here, only the deep financial crisis of the 90s, in which the Japanese found themselves because of the influx of cheap labor from China. A genuine tragedy plays out in an average family in Tokyo.
Ryuhei, the head of a traditional patriarchal family, is fired from a good position and starts looking for another job, hiding his situation from his wife Megumi. His eldest son wants to enlist in the U.S. Army to change his citizenship, and his youngest son wants to learn to play the piano. Meanwhile, the head of the family suffers, finds a humiliating job and sinks deeper and deeper into despair, while his family inevitably collapses under the pressure of circumstances.
The film won several prestigious awards, including a special prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Too Big to Fail
- IMDB Rating – 7.3
- Genre: Drama, Biography, History
- Production: USA / 2011
- Director: Curtis Hanson
- Starring: William Hurt, Edward Asner, Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Topher Grace, Cynthia Nixon, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalub, James Woods, John Hird.
Another American movie dedicated to the high-profile crisis of 2008. But now it is a story not about those who managed to warm their hands on the disaster, but about the preconditions of this devastating phenomenon. And, in fact, this movie is a biopic about the most difficult episode in the life of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
The aggravated financial problems of the global investment firm “Lehman Brothers” turned into a crisis that affected all spheres of life of people in the country and put half the world before an imminent economic collapse.
Henry “Hank” Paulson, who used to be a supporter of the established credit system, is experiencing nightmarish weeks, forced to neutralize the effects of the crisis by government intervention in the banking system.
The original title of the film, “Too Big to Fail” is a winged phrase of economist Hyman Minsky, who so defined very large financial organizations, the collapse of which will lead to a world economic catastrophe.
Default
- IMDB Rating – 6.7
- Genre: Drama, History
- Production: Korea South / 2018
- Budget: $6,000,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $27,709,716
- Director: Choi Guk-hee
- Starring: Kim Hye-soo, Yoo Ah-in, Ho Joon-ho, Jo Woo-jin, Vincent Cassel, Kim Hong-pha, Eom Hyo-sop, Song Young-chan, Kwon Hae-hyo, Jo Han-cheol
In 1997, Thailand experienced a serious financial crisis that quickly spread to neighboring countries, including Korea. To this day, people still feel the echoes of that difficult period. “Default” is the first South Korean film that tries to make sense of what happened.
The story is told from three perspectives. Han Si Hyun, a senior analyst at a state-owned bank, realizes a week before the full collapse that disaster is looming and organizes an urgent meeting of top officials to develop a plan to protect the country’s economy. Young analyst Jeong Hak is looking to cash in on falling real estate prices. Gab Soo, a businessman, accepts payment for his work in securities and goes bankrupt.
On the day of its premiere in South Korean theaters, the film took the top spot at the box office, surpassing the previously leading “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
- IMDB Rating – 6.2
- Genre: Drama, Melodrama
- Production: USA / 2010
- Budget: $70,000,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $134,748,021
- Director: Oliver Stone
- Starring: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Vanessa Ferlito, Thomas Belesis, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon, Richard Stratton.
The sequel to the 1987 cult financial drama “Wall Street” is a story in its own right, and despite slightly lower ratings, in some ways it surpasses its predecessor. Namely, in the bold predictions that came to fruition 10 years later. For example, ESG principles in company management strategies and clean energy investments.
The movie begins when Gekko is released from prison after 8 years in 2001. He writes a book about the financial crisis he predicted and later, determined to mend his relationship with his daughter Winnie, meets her suitor Jacob.
This young talented Wall Street trader dreams of finding the culprits behind the collapse of the bank where he worked and taking revenge on them. Gekko and Jacob team up and successfully confront the financial crisis of 2008.
In September 2010, director Oliver Stone opened trading on the NASDAQ exchange to coincide with the New York premiere of his sequel film.
99 Homes
- IMDB Rating – 7.1
- Genre: Drama, Crime
- Production: USA / 2014
- Budget: $8,000,000
- Worldwide box office receipts: $1,828,232
- Director: Ramin Bahrani
- Starring: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Douglas M. Griffin, Randy Austin, Carl Palmer, James Brown, Luke Sexton, Noah Lomax, Alex Aristides
A financial and family drama about how banks take homes away from people who can’t pay their mortgages in full. Rick Caver is a ruthless businessman who makes money by evicting debtors. One day his “client” is Dennis Nash, a single father forced to move into a run-down hotel with his mother and young son.
In desperation, Nash goes to Rick to get back at least his belongings, and the latter offers Dennis to work for him. Very soon our hero becomes a rich man, buys a more luxurious house, but money is not given to him easily: after each eviction he acquires a couple of deadly enemies, and mother and son, having learned that he deprives vulnerable people of housing, refuse to deal with him….
Director Ramin Bahrani dedicated the film to the memory of one of the most famous film critics of our time, Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert, who passed away in 2013.
The Company Men
- IMDB Rating – 6.7
- Genre: Drama
- Production: USA / 2010
- Budget: $15,000,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $4,882,577
- Director: John Wells
- Starring: Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Suzanne Rico, Kent Shocknek, Adrian Krstanski, Lewis D. Wheeler, Celeste Olive
Every major financial crisis eventually affects the most vulnerable members of society – low-income people, ordinary workers and their families. The story centers on a large shipbuilding firm nearing bankruptcy.
The head James Salinger tries to pretend that the company is doing well, and at the same time signed a lot of orders to reduce the staff. As a result, many people find themselves on the street, including those who have worked here for decades.
Phil Woodward, a worker with more than 30 years of experience, commits suicide. Other men look for any kind of work, trying to hide their life collapse from their loved ones. The ending will not be grim, however, that’s just in the movie.
The film premiered at the Sundance Independent Film Festival in January 2010.
Life in a Fishbowl
- IMDB Rating – 7.2
- Genre: Drama
- Production: Iceland / 2014
- Budget: €2,700,000
- Director: Baldwin Zofoniasson
- Starring: Hera Hilmar, Thor Kristjansson, Torstein Bachman, Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson, Atli Oscar Fjalarsson, Thor Tulinius, Valur Freyr Einarsson, Ingvar Thordason, Kristin Lea Sigridardóttir
The plot of this Icelandic drama is a painterly portrait of Reykjavik on the eve and during the 2008 financial crisis, a vital multicolored canvas woven from three intertwining destinies.
Eik is a kindergarten teacher, a young single mother of an 8-year-old son with diabetes. She struggles to make ends meet, so she moonlights as a prostitute. Eick increasingly encounters the down-and-out writer Mori, a once-famous poet and novelist who has fallen into alcoholism after an incident 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, Solvi, a former star soccer player, is getting into the banking business. He wants to get his hands on Maury’s downtown property and becomes increasingly estranged from his family, including his young daughter, who goes to the kindergarten where Eike works.
The movie was a box office hit in its home country and was submitted to the 2015 Oscars from Iceland.
Ilo Ilo
- IMDB Rating – 7.2
- Genre: Drama
- Production: Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, France / 2013
- Worldwide box office receipts: $1,156,773
- Director: Anthony Chen
- Starring: Eo Yannian, Tian Wen Chen, Angel Bayani, Peter Wee, Joe Kukatas, Naomi, Stephanie Kiong, Jia Ming Chantel Teo, Zhi Fang Xu
The events of the Singaporean hit “Iloilo” take place on the eve of the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 90s. Jiale is a bully boy who is constantly at risk of being expelled from school. His father runs a sales department, and his mother, pregnant with her second child, is in the civil service and is too tired to raise her son.
The family decides to hire a cheap Filipino nanny to look after the rambunctious offspring. That’s how Teresa comes into the house. While the nanny and her pupil get used to each other, the financial situation in the family deteriorates.
The crisis eats away the savings, the father loses his job and gets a job as a night watchman with a meager salary. Teresa secretly takes part-time jobs to keep sending money to her family back home. And soon she has to be fired…
This directorial debut by Anthony Chen, which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes, was nominated for an Oscar from Singapore.
Money Monster
- IMDB Rating – 6.5
- Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime, Detective
- Production: USA / 2016
- Budget: $27,000,000
- Worldwide box office receipts: $93,282,604
- Director: Jodie Foster
- Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Katrina Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Denham, Lenny Venito, Christopher Bauer, Dennis Boutsikaris
A crime thriller with a colorful cast from “Silence of the Lambs” star Jodie Foster, who serves as director here.
“Financial Monster” – that’s the name of the popular economic program of popular host Lee Gates, who gives advice to entrepreneurs and is considered a real expert in stocks and investments.
And then one day, in the middle of another show, a certain Kyle Budwell sneaks onto the set and takes Lee hostage. He explains that he lost everything because of the financial crisis in IBIS Clear Capital, the company where Kyle had invested his savings on Lee’s advice, and he is going to get his money back at any cost.
The movie started in third place at the box office. It was filmed entirely in New York, including Wall Street.
Margin Call
- IMDB Rating – 7.1
- Genre: Thriller, Drama
- Production: USA / 2011
- Budget: $3,500,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $19,504,039
- Director: J.C. Chandor
- Starring: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi.
A slightly confusing financial thriller, the plot of which is tied to the same crisis of 2008, scrutinizing the key moment that collapsed the world market. A large investment bank is downsizing and the main character, the head of the risk management department, Eric Dale, is being laid off. Before he leaves, he hands his assistant Peter a flash drive with his latest calculations.
Peter discovers that Eric has convincingly predicted a financial catastrophe, which will happen any day now, unless emergency measures are taken. In a matter of hours, top management gathers at the bank, trying to devise a plan to save the bank, which leads to the most serious economic collapse of the 21st century.
The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Original Screenplay and at the same time for the German Golden Bear and won two Independent Spirit Awards.
Assault on Wall Street
- IMDB Rating – 6.0
- Genre: Action, Thriller, Crime
- Production: Canada, USA / 2013
- Director: Uwe Boll
- Starring: Dominic Purcell, Erin Carplak, John Hird, Edward Furlong, Eric Roberts, Keith David, Michael Paré, Locklin Munroe, Tyrone Leitsoe, Mike Dopud.
A strong crime thriller about Jim Baxford, a veteran and armored car collection driver who lost his savings to the 2008 banking crisis. While trying to cash out his pension for his wife’s cancer treatment, Jim learns that the bank failed to invest and then lost his money.
He tries to get justice through legal means, but his lawyer can do nothing, the district attorney’s office gives up, and his bosses, having heard about Jim’s financial problems, fire him as unreliable. Then his wife commits suicide because of the acute sense of guilt. And then Jim buys all the firearms available to him and begins to physically destroy all those responsible for his troubles.
Director Uwe Boll thoroughly researched the aftermath of the 2008 crisis and talked to many people whose lives fell apart after the event. The initial inspiration came from the song “Murder on Wall Street” by Distant 2nd.
My Piece of the Pie
- IMDB Rating – 5.8
- Genre: Drama, comedy
- Production: France / 2011
- Budget: €7,880,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $9,123,187
- Director: Cédric Klapisch
- Starring: Karine Viard, Gilles Lellouche, Audrey Lamy, Jean-Pierre Martin, Raphael Godin, Fred Ulysses, Kevin Bishop, Marina Wacht, Tim Pigott-Smith.
French tragicomedy exploring class differences, social injustice and financial inequality in Europe after the 2008 crisis. The story’s protagonist is the divorced and under-aged Frans, who has just been laid off after 20 years of service in a Dunkirk shipping company.
To feed her three children, Frans moves to Paris, where there are more opportunities, and pretends to be an illiterate immigrant to find some work. She successfully finds a job as housekeeper to a wealthy banker, Stéphane. Soon they become lovers, and then the woman learns that Stéphane was one of those who bankrupted Dunkirk and does not regret it.
In its first weekend, the movie was on the most watched list in France.
The Wizard of Lies
- IMDB Rating – 6.8
- Genre: Drama, Crime, Biography
- Production: USA / 2017
- Director: Barry Levinson
- Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Alessandro Nivola, Hank Azaria, Lily Rabe, Kristen Connolly, Kathryn Narducci, Michael Kostroff, Nathan Darrow, Steve Coulter
The financial crisis in this movie has nothing to do with the global banking system. But it became one of the biggest scandals of 2008, when it was discovered that Bernard Madoff’s large investment company with an office on Wall Street was nothing but a huge pyramid scheme.
In the early 60’s Bernard Madoff founded his firm, which over time turned into a large investment fund. Bernie, who became a billionaire, is known as a generous philanthropist, an influential financier and enjoys his wealth until the moment when his sons did not reveal to the FBI the essence of his father’s business.
Journalist Diane Henriques was the first to interview the arrested Madoff. In the movie she plays herself, repeating her famous interview with Robert De Niro, who played Bernie.
Four Against the Bank
- IMDB Rating – 5.8
- Genre: Comedy, Crime
- Production: Germany / 2016
- Budget: €13,000,000
- Worldwide Box Office: $9,193,243
- Director: Wolfgang Petersen
- Starring: Til Schweiger, Matthias Schweighöfer, Michael Herbig, Jan Josef Liefers, Antje Traue, Alexandra Maria Lara, Thomas Heinze, Jana Pallaske, Claudia Michelsen, Leopold Hornung
One of the good German comedies with Til Schweiger as Chris, a 40-year-old former boxer whose best days are long behind him. He dreams of opening his own boxing studio, his buddies Max and Peter also plan to start their own business. The trio hires bank teller Tobias to successfully invest their money.
However, their savings disappear without a trace due to a financial crisis at the bank, set up by its obnoxious manager Schumacher. And then all four men band together to rob the bank that robbed them.
This is director Wolfgang Petersen’s last movie before his death, and a remake of his own 1976 film based on the novel by Ralph Maloney.
Dream House
- IMDB Rating – 6.6
- Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama
- Production: Hong Kong / 2010
- Worldwide box office receipts: $383,158
- Director: Pan Ho-Chun
- Starring: Josie Ho, Won Chin, Helen To, Man Yang San, Cindy Yu, Lai-Ling Chan, Eason Chan, Chow Fei Kin, Michelle Ye, Joe Cook
An extremely violent crime thriller from Hong Kong, where the events unfold. The main character Shung lives in a cramped “one room” with her parents, works two jobs, grabs part-time jobs and dreams of saving up for her own place someday. And this is almost unrealistic in a big city.
However, Shung still finds a way out, and the coveted apartment overlooking the bay, almost in her hands. Insurance after the death of his father and a bonded mortgage in a pinch give the necessary amount. However, because of the financial crisis in the country, the owners of the apartment sharply raise the price. And then Shung decides on a cruel and bloody plan, which will cost 11 other people’s lives.
Some viewers fainted in the theaters from the brutal naturalistic scenes. Do not show this movie to impressionable people and children!
Echo Boomers
- IMDB Rating – 5.3
- Genre: Action, Drama, Crime
- Production: USA / 2020
- Worldwide box office receipts: $2,934,433
- Director: Seth Savoy
- Starring: Patrick Schwarzenegger, Gilles Geary, Haley Lowe, Alex Pettyfer, Michael Shannon, Oliver Cooper, Jacob Alexander, Leslie Ann Warren, Kate Linder, Ali Freeman.
Finding themselves stranded by the recession and seeing no career prospects, a company of 20-year-old college graduates begin robbing wealthy Chicago homes. For them, young misfits, it’s an expression of anger at a system that promised much but delivered nothing.
The main character of the story is Lance Zutterland, yesterday’s student who joins Mel Donnelly’s gang. They buy solid clothes, enjoy easy money, but gradually a real discord begins in the group of young men resentful of society.
This movie is Seth Savoy’s directorial debut.
Team Spirit
- IMDB Rating – 6.7
- Genre: Thriller, Drama, Biography
- Production: France / 2016
- Director: Christophe Barratier
- Starring: Arthur Dupont, François-Xavier Demeson, Sabrina Ouazani, Taoufik Jallab, Thomas Kuman, Soren Prevost, Franz-Rudolf Lang, Luc Schiltz, Mohamed Arezki, Ambroise Michel.
The global financial crisis has also hit France. The plot of the movie “The Outsider” is based on the famous scandal with Jerome Kerviel, a dexterous swindler who managed to cheat the largest French financial conglomerate Societe Generale for 5 billion euros during the recession of 2008, almost destroying it, and without receiving personal gain.
When Jerome’s numerous scams came to light, the bank’s top management was genuinely perplexed, how did a trader from a working family with little experience skillfully and secretly break the rules and move huge sums uncontrollably? The story also focuses on the psychological pressure that traders feel due to high responsibility and competition.
The real Jérôme Kerviel was released from prison in 2014 with an obligation to pay only €1 million. Not only that, Jerome received compensation for wrongful dismissal after proving with the help of the Paris Labor Dispute Resolution Board that management was aware of his machinations but did not prevent them as long as they were profitable.
Phas Gaye Re Obama
- IMDB rating – 7.5
- Genre: Drama, comedy, crime
- Production: India / 2010
- Director: Subhash Kapoor
- Starring: Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Sanjay Mishra, Manju Rishi, Brijendra Kala, Sushil Pandey, Sumit Nijawan, Amit Sial, Surendra Rajan
Despite the title, it’s a kidnap movie straight out of India, which too faced recession during the 2008 US crisis. And hence director and screenwriter Subhash Kapoor has, in his own words, written and directed an angry satire.
Oma Shastri is a millionaire entrepreneur from New Jersey who has gone bankrupt due to the recession. To get out of debt, he travels to his homeland, a small Indian town, to sell his family estate.
Unaware of his problems, local criminals kidnap Shastri, hoping to get a good ransom for him. Learning of his plight, they decide to resell Shastri to another gang. But Oma is no ordinary hostage, and he decides to outwit his captors.
Subhash Kapoor with his movie wanted to draw attention to kidnapping, which has turned into a veritable industry during the recession in North India.
Pocket Listing
- IMDB Rating – 5.3
- Genre: Thriller, Comedy, Crime
- Production: USA / 2015
- Director: Conor Allyn
- Starring: James Jourdy, Jessica Clark, Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds, Christos Vasilopoulos, Logan Fahey, Ken Davitian, Kaitlyn Gerard, Kwesi Boake, Noel Gugliemi
A crime-comedy financial thriller that gradually turns into a black comedy about marital infidelity in the spirit of the Coen brothers. The action takes place in Los Angeles during the collapse of the real estate market.
Jack Woodman – a deft and dishonest realtor, fired for his shenanigans from a prestigious firm. One day he is approached by a well-to-do couple, Frank Hunter and his wife Lana, to have Jack secretly and quickly sell their Malibu villa. The agent decides to get his hands on it, but he’s not the only one with personal plans for the deal, and things quickly turn into a risky adventure with a dead body in the pool.
The movie was filmed in some of the most famous and memorable locations in Los Angeles. For example, the villa for sale is the same one used in “Boyhood 3”.
The Last Days of Lehman Brothers
- IMDB Rating – 6.2
- Genre: Drama
- Production: UK / 2009
- Director: Michael Samuels
- Starring: Corey Johnson, James Cromwell, David Annan, James Bolham, Michael Brandon, Laura Brook, Joshua Dallas, Ben Daniels, Tony Devon, Richard Durden.
The declaration of bankruptcy of the largest player in the mortgage market, the firm Lehman Brothers, was the starting point of the biggest global financial crisis in history. The British drama once again scrolls through the events leading up to the global economic disaster of 2008.
Part of the events is told by a fictional character Zach working at Lehman Brothers. The action revolves around the attempts of rival banks and firms to buy up the depreciated assets of Lehman to prevent its collapse, as well as around Zach’s sister, who has taken out a mortgage loan with no way to pay it back. In this way, the background of the crisis is revealed, mixed with unfair trade and a thirst for quick profit.
The movie was first shown on the BBC as part of a selection of programs and dramas marking the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
