Boiler Room

A film set in the world of American stockbroking. Seth runs an illegal casino out of his flat. His father is a federal judge and knows what his son does; the relationship between them is cold. An acquaintance recommends a place: a brokerage outside the city. He takes the job and the training begins: cold calls, selling stock, convincing a customer. The firm makes a great deal of money. Then Seth notices something: most of the shares they sell do not belong to real companies. The system works like this: they inflate the price by telephone, sell, and the firm unloads its own position. What the film is interested in is how that arrangement pulls people in. Everyone in the office is very young, getting rich very fast, and nobody asks questions. The best-known scene is the training talk: a senior broker explaining to new arrivals how selling is done. Giovanni Ribisi plays Seth, Ben Affleck the senior broker and Vin Diesel his boss. Nia Long and Ron Rifkin are in the cast. Ben Younger directed; his first film. An early and effective example of its genre for anyone who likes films about finance. For a viewer expecting action, the film stays inside the office and proceeds through talk.