''Crypto'' is a 2019 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

, about money laundering involving cryptocurrency. The film was directed by John Stalberg Jr. and written by

Carlyle Eubank Carlyle Eubank is an American writer and screenwriter. His 2014 film ''The Signal (2014 film), The Signal'', starring Laurence Fishburne, Brenton Thwaites, and Olivia Cooke, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released in US the ...

, David Frigerio, and Jeffrey Ingber. It stars

Beau Knapp Beau Christian Knapp (born April 17, 1989) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' The Signal'' (2014), '' Run All Night'' (2015), and '' Southpaw'' (2015). Knapp portrayed a lead villain in ''Death Wish'' (2018), the sixth installm ...

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007), and Emily Malek in ''The Handmaid's Tale'' (2017–2021). ...

, Luke Hemsworth and Kurt Russell. The film was released on April 12, 2019 in the United States by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

Plot

Martin "Marty" Duran is an

anti money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictio ...

(AML) analyst at Omnicorp Bank headquarters in Manhattan. He produces a report showing that a potential client, a $7 billion corporation, has violated AML rules, killing the deal. The CEO wants him fired, but the head of AML, Robin, believes in him and saves himthough he is demoted to a branch in his tiny hometown of

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...

, in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

. He reunites with a childhood friend, Earl, who owns a failing liquor store, but is a computer genius who stays above water by mining cryptocurrency. He has a much less successful reunion with his brother, Caleb, and father, Martin Sr., who work a failing potato farm that is going to be repossessed by Martin’s bank. Marty meets Katie, who works at an art gallery, her boss Penelope, and their accountant, Ted. Marty's AML review of the bank’s records lead him to investigate the gallery. Earl helps him by hacking various computer banks. Together, they uncover a multi-million dollar money laundering scheme, helping a deadly Russian gang. Earl, Penelope and Marty’s predecessor at the branch are killed by Viktor and Nikos, Ted's thugs. Earl had couriered Marty a memory stick with evidence that Robin is facilitating the entire money laundering scheme at Omnicorp. Ted and his thugs hold Martin Sr. hostage to get the evidence, but Marty and Caleb spring a trap on them, supported by Katie and her FBI colleagues, as Marty deduced who she was. Robin is arrested and Marty starts cryptocurrency mining at the farm, saving their finances, while starting to date Katie.

Cast

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began on June 15, 2018 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. John Stalberg Jr. directed the film from the original story by Jeffrey Ingber and the screenplay by

and David Frigerio, while producers would be Yale Productions' Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman along with Frigerio.

Reception

Critical reception was largely negative, with

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

ranking the film as "rotten" with 5 negative reviews and one positive.

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

of ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4, stating that ''Crypto'' had enough surprising and "offbeat" moments for a marginal recommendation as a "wonderfully convoluted guilty-pleasure". In contrast, Noel Murray of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote: "The characters all feel like they’ve been copied and pasted from hundreds of other movies".

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten Tomatoes American crime thriller films American thriller drama films 2019 crime thriller films 2019 thriller drama films Films about cryptocurrencies Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City Films about fraud Money laundering 2019 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films