EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU FOR MONEY
(director/writer: Ben McKenzie; cinematographers: Victor Pena, Giorgio Angelini, Matthew Akers, Neil Brandvoid; editors: Jen Mackie, Drew Blatman; music: Martin Crane; cast: Ben McKenzie, Morena Baccarin (Brazilian-American actress wife of Ben’s), Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder), Alex Mashinsky (CEO of Celcius Network), Nayib Nukele (President of El Salvador), Gerard Butler (Scottish actor having the highest earnings in the world); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Ben McKenzie, Giorgio Angelini; The Forge release; 2026)
“A pleasing, engaging and informative investigative reporting documentary on the dangers of cryptocurrency.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The actor Ben McKenzie, the former pretty boy costar of the “O.C.”, with a degree in economics from the University of Virginia, in his first feature–directs, writes and produces a pleasing, engaging and informative investigative reporting documentary on the dangers of cryptocurrency after investing in crypto and losing his investment because it’s a crooked Ponzi scheme.
The film is based on his best-selling 2023 book “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud” that he wrote with the journalist Jacob Silverman. It points out that cryptocurrency is a scam, and only a few insiders, like the hustlers who run it, are making money from it, while regular investors have little chance of success. Crypto is often used to pay off criminal activities, as it’s a substitute for real money but has no backing (it’s not insured by federal governments).
The greedy, corrupt and unfit for office President Trump worked with venal criminal crypto company leaders after granting them pardons and crypto was made part of the government, whereby Trump’s private crypto company made a fortune in this totally illegal transaction that was legalized.
The affable, family man, middle-aged Ben uses self-deprecation humor to try and simplify crypto in his explanation of it. He interviews some of the gullible public (who lost their investment but still believe in crypto) and some of those involved in trading crypto in places such as Miami and El Salvador (the first country that legalized Bitcoin use).
The film hardly cleared things up for me, but it at least kept me from being upset with myself for not really understanding how such an amorphous thing works. It reinforced that I’m smart to have nothing to do with it.
It played at the SXSW Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 5/17/2025 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com