There’s no such thing as easy money…and never has that fact been better exemplified than in Cutter Hodierne’s Cold Wallet, a splendid, tight, cautionary thriller that shares renowned company with themes and visual palettes similar to Fincher’s Panic Room and the Coen Brother’s Fargo. Steven Soderbergh put his name on this movie with good cause.
As the opening title card suggests, this is inspired by a true-ish story. Raul Castillo plays the tragic hero Billy, divorced and embattled, trying desperately to get his life on track so that he might regain a stable relationship with his young daughter and prove to his ex-wife that he is not a failure. To this end, he dives head-first into the burgeoning cryptocurrency market, where people are becoming millionaires overnight.
Remember, however, that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t, and soon Billy has gone belly up. All of his crypto earnings disappear in the blink of an eye, leaving him with a lump in the pit of his stomach, comprised of bad choices and broken dreams. He cries on the shoulder of his Zen friend and gym operator Dom (Tony Cavalero), who helped Billy by adding money to his crypto investment, hoping to cash in on the big wins. The financial gut-punch renders both men emotionally debilitated until Billy is contacted by Eva (Melonie Diaz), a hacker he has been casually communicating with, who just so happens to have an address and a partial plan of how to get theirs plus everyone else’s money back from the cryptocurrencies founder, Charles Hegel (Josh Brener).
“…he dives head first into the burgeoning cryptocurrency market…”
In the wake of his financial collapse, Hegel has gone into hiding within the walls of his secluded mansion on massive acreage, blanketed by the chill of winter storms. The he trio arm themselves and set out. The plan they agree on is simple. Get the rich guy and Robin Hood all the money he ripped off the public…as well as recouping their own investments plus compensation for their troubles.
As simple as a plan may be, one can never account for every possibility, and as Billy and his crew storm the castle and secure the bad guy, the real game begins. After Hegel convinces them that their money has to be brought in from an outside source, he starts pouring poison in each of his captors’ ears, offering up Faustian deals left and right, hoping to convince one to turn on the others. He wants them to set him free and keep all the money instead of sharing it and redistributing the wealth.
With a razor-sharp and timely screenplay by John Hibey, combined with stunning photography by Oliver Millar, this movie is professional as hell with a dynamite ending which combines a clever pay-off involving a household appliance and a next-level twist. Like most indie films it was made on a budget vastly lower than that of it’s A-list cousins, but there is absolutely no reason why Cold Wallet shouldn’t be screening at a multiplex near you. It is that good! Man…this is a great flick!
"…a splendid, tight, cautionary thriller..."
