In this ingenious satirical thriller,humiliated traders meet online to settle their uncertain futures for goodThe morose (gloomy or sullen) dissatisfaction of Ireland’s newly impoverished Celtic tigers is satirised in this interesting first feature from writer-directors Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy. It’s a violent futurist thriller with hints of David Fincher’s Fight Club and Géla Babluani’s cult Russian-roulette nightmare 13 (Tzameti). Killian Scott plays Harry, a young guy who has grown used to the salubrious life in the financial world; being laid off post-slump introduced him to the humiliation of not having much money. But his cringing beta-male friend Vernon (John Bradley) has invented an internet game called Trading; individuals who can’t bear the thought of not being rich must sell everything, and attach all their money in a bag and challenge other individuals to meet on a patch of wasteground for a bareknuckle fight to the death; the winner buries the loser and takes all the cash. It’s a game that fuses the aggression and triumphalism of their lost financial careers with the secretive euphoria of something like web-based casual sex. I think the utilize of voiceover is a flaw in Traders – reminiscent of 90s geezer Britfilms. But this is an ingenious and macabre debut.
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Source: theguardian.com