6 Movies About Late Stage Capitalism

There are two wolves inside me, one wants to write about late stage capitalism and the other doesn't want to write a single sentence about Elon Musk, the poster child of late stage capitalism. The way forward is to write about movies.

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

A documentary about the epic failure of a music festival. Shamelessly promoted as a beach full of supermodels while very little thought went into the logistics of actually planning an event. In the end it seems it was likely all a big scam, but the would-be concert goers found little sympathy--the rest of the world was filled with schadenfreude about the hyper-instagramable event that wasn't. Also there's a guy who was asked to give a blowjob for bottled water.

The Big Short (2015)

You wouldn't think a story about accounting fraud would be movie material but it works. Centered on a group of investors who saw that the housing market was propped up on bad loans and bet against what was considered the safest investment. Technical topics are explained in fun ways, such as by Margot Robbie in a bubble bath. While increased banking regulation came after the 2008 crash, in some ways the core problem is worse today. That problem being treating housing like an investment opportunity instead of something people need to live. In the aughts people were buying houses they couldn't afford, but it was generally to live in themselves. In 2021, a full quarter of single-family homes sold in America went to buyers with no intention of living in them, such as house flippers, landlords, Airbnb hosts, and other investors.

The Dropout (2022)

When Elizabeth Holmes says she wants to help people and become a billionaire it should send up red flags. No one gets to be a billionaire by being nice. The story of how her blood testing company's existence was continuously complicated by compounding fraud. It's worth noting though that even if her idea had worked it wouldn't have been good; getting a blood test at a Walgreen's is not health care, it's an attempt at bypassing a broken system.

Hot Girls Wanted (2015)

Wanting to be famous is nothing new. In 356 BCE, the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was burned down by Herostratus in order to become infamous. What is very postmodern though is the number of women who think doing porn is a short cut to fame and fortune. The anti-hero of the story is Riley Reynolds, a 21st century pimp, who uses Craigslist to recruit barely legal girls from around the nation to come do porn. He does this knowing that the market wants fresh faces for its "amateur" content, and after a doing a few videos they can no longer be considered amateurs and the work will dry up (unless they are willing to do increasingly demanding fetish content). At least he responds honestly when the girls say they hope their parents never find out--parents will find out because "everybody watches porn."

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

I felt like I had to mention this movie, though I don't actually recommend it. The premise of the film seems to be "What if white collar crime was actually lit AF?" The victims are never even mentioned as their money is simply better put to use on breast implants for personal assistants and yacht drugs. This meme is more thought provoking than the movie:

Alien (1979)

Critics sometimes describe corporations as evil empires. I think it is more useful to think of them as amoral programs. They will do what we program them to do. And if we program them to make profits and disregard all other effects, well the results can be terrifying without anyone actively being evil. In the original Alien film we never see a human character that wants the alien alive, we're just told that "the company" wants it. The corporation doesn't want the ship's crew dead, it just doesn't care if they do die. We can see through the comments by the ship's android (loyal to the corporation, not the crew) that there is a parallel between the company and the monster "I admire [the alien's] purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. "