In June 2023, a really particular record of movies was added to Letterboxd, titled, “oh this man is so f*cked. there’s completely no method he can get extra f*cked. (the subsequent scene occurs) ohhhh my god.” Motion pictures like After Hours, Fargo, and Uncut Gems fill stated gag record, and writer-director Brandon Daley’s new “twitchy, hyper-contemporary comedy” $POSITIONS would match proper in with the anxiety-inducing bunch.
Premiering at SXSW 2025, Daley’s debut characteristic movie follows the trials and tribulations of protagonist Mike Alvarado (Michael Kunicki), a blue-collar Midwesterner who might or might not have a cryptocurrency buying and selling dependancy. Spoiler: he completely does. The movie begins with Mike in a trance, watching his cellphone display and watching his cash deplete in actual time on some crypto app that includes a menacing monkey. As Mike snaps out of his hypnotic state — whereas driving, thoughts you — the viewers meets his passenger, brother Vinny (Vinny Kress): a special-needs man who depends on Mike for the whole lot, unaware that his super-cool bro shouldn’t be geared up to take action.
Crypto as a Joyful Mirage in a Desert of American Melancholy
$POSITIONS
3.5
/5
$POSITIONS follows Mike Alvarado, a blue-collar employee from Kansas, as he struggles to elevate his household out of poverty by way of speculative cryptocurrency investments. His journey rapidly devolves right into a playing dependancy, straining his relationships along with his girlfriend, mentally disabled brother, and recovering addict cousin.
- Launch Date
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March 8, 2025
- Director
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Brandon Daley
- Runtime
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97 minutes
- Solid
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Reagan Fitzgerald, Kaylyn Carter, Vinny Kress, Michael Kunicki, Trevor Dawkins
- Genres
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Drama
- Writers
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Brandon Daley
- From its surroundings to its costuming to its set ornament, $POSITIONS is visually sensible.
- Michael Kunicki and Trevor Dawkins give beautiful emotional performances that illuminate an unpromising world.
- The pleasant casting of Vinny Kress, an actor with Down syndrome, and the movie’s collaboration with particular wants theater organizations gives genuine illustration for performers with developmental disabilities.
- Its feminine characters are very underdeveloped.
- $POSITIONS feels a bit lengthy in its second act, leaning on busyness and basic mayhem.
The skeleton of the story is paying homage to Benny and Josh Safdie’s Good Time (which additionally belongs on that Letterboxd record). Each movies characteristic anxious, pretty unlikable protagonists strapped for money as they make poor life selections (many being unlawful), dragging their developmentally disabled brothers alongside for the harmful and completely nerve-wracking journey.
In contrast to the Safdie brothers’ financial institution heist flick, nonetheless, Daley’s $POSITIONS is a semi-autobiographical story based mostly on his “shameful” time buying and selling shares and crypto throughout the COVID-19 quarantine days. As soon as sucked into the shady and scam-laced world of cryptocurrency, Daley crawled his method out of a gap, deciding to make $POSITIONS as a method to “repent for [his] horrible life selections” and spotlight the tough realities of his small-town Kansas upbringing.
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Mike Alvarado gloats about “utilizing NFTs to supply liquidity” and dealing for himself as a “full-time investor,” all whereas watching his portfolio worth plummet. He cannot cease swapping cash for XMUN crypto, and each transfer he makes will go away viewers uneasy and on the verge of spewing profanities on the display. Emotions of sympathy and melancholy will comply with shortly behind the burning anger in the direction of Mike, because it turns into clearer that his life has not been a simple one.
Whether or not it is the current passing of his pricey mom, the infinite battles with substance abuse that his father (Guido Cameli) and cousin Travis (Trevor Dawkins) endure, or his “childhood trauma” that severely impacts his intercourse life along with his girlfriend, Charlene (Kaylyn Carter), Mike is each a symptom of his middle-of-nowhere Americana world and a contemporary cautionary story. With vulnerability, humility, bleak realism, and a wholesome dose of gross-out humor, $POSITIONS is at occasions a spellbinding tragedy weaved right into a raunchy ’90s-to-early-2000s-style comedy.
A Despicable Protagonist You Simply Cannot Assist However Root For
There’s hardly something redeemable about Mike. He is egocentric and judgmental, he would not study from his errors, he places his family members in hurt’s method, and he makes zero effort to alter his actuality. Self-improvement and the willingness to take accountability aren’t precisely on Mike’s bingo card for this yr or the subsequent. His laundry record of flaws are a part of what makes him a implausible important character, although. Mike is undoubtedly a large number, however he is additionally dynamic and spirited, which makes it simple to cheer every time his silly crypto steadiness goes up, even when it is for only a second. As he approaches every hurdle with eagerness and desperation, solely essentially the most twisted of viewers will want for his downfall.
Mike is outwardly frightened of the dependancy that plagues his members of the family, even bragging about by no means having had a beer (identical to Donald Trump). “I perceive laborers corresponding to your self can destroy your brains and our bodies with medication and alcohol, however I’ve to remain sharp as a tack to maximise my returns,” Mike tells a former coworker. Along with his father ingesting himself into oblivion to deal with the lack of his spouse, and his violent addict cousin discovering himself caught in an infinite loop of jail, “restoration,” and relapse, Mike’s resistance is comprehensible. That being stated, his crypto buying and selling is clearly a compulsive playing dependancy, which stimulates the reward system within the mind simply as medication and alcohol do.
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Mike lacks self-awareness in some ways, generally exhibiting a Michael Scott-esque false sense of confidence. Similar to Steve Carell’s beloved character, Mike would certainly additionally say, “I like inside jokes. Like to be part of one sometime.” After all, the tacky smile masks everlasting ache, and Michael Kunicki performs this saddening juggling act skillfully. As every baffling jumble of optimistic phrases leaves Mike’s mouth, Kunicki’s face all the time paints a extra trustworthy image. Mike is written to near-perfection, and his worry, ache, disgrace, and anxiousness come by way of vibrantly because of Kunicki’s robust efficiency.
A Middling Second Act and Underdeveloped Feminine Characters Preserve $POSITIONS From Greatness
Not each modern movie must be a beacon of feminist cinema; let’s get that out of the way in which. Nevertheless, it is a bit disappointing that $POSITIONS fails to go the controversial Bechdel check — except the group of unnamed girls enjoying By no means Have I Ever for lower than 60 seconds counts (it would not). To be clear, celebrated feminist cartoonist and creator Alison Bechdel has admitted the Bechdel check was written to be “a joke,” and that she “didn’t ever intend for it to be the true gauge it has develop into.” With simply three easy guidelines, the check will be limiting. However not passing the Bechdel check is not the true challenge at hand; the ladies of $POSITIONS are utterly flat and lack function. Mike’s Aunt Barb (Sue Hausmann) is basically a numb placeholder of a personality, which might be excusable if his girlfriend, Charlene, was entire.
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For a lot of the movie, Charlene accepts the crumbs she’s given. She has a boyfriend who all the time places himself first — honestly, it is unclear what she’s getting out of the connection in any respect. Positive, it is good to see Charlene ultimately select herself, however that does not cancel out her being written to be a promiscuous, surface-level ditz.
Whereas the derogatory “bimbo” character is actually a trope of ’90s and early-2000s comedies, Charlene would not really feel like a satirical homage to a specific second in time. She feels unfinished and at occasions offensive. Her life aspirations are a thriller, and he or she wholeheartedly believes Mike is “a crypto genius,” regardless of all of the contradictory proof straight in entrance of her. A handful of strong one-liners come from Charlene, and Kaylyn Carter’s supply is nice. Nonetheless, Charlene would not precisely scream “robust feminine character.”
The second act of $POSITIONS will get a bit muddy, with Daley seemingly counting on overstimulation and chaos to maintain issues action-packed. In all equity, the story continues to develop all through, and the explosive third act makes up for the dragging and minor inconsistencies in tone within the center portion.
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All in all, $POSITIONS is a brutally trustworthy portrait of lower-income life in Midwestern America, shining a practical gentle on harrowing situational struggles with coronary heart and outlandish humor. It could appear foolish to level out one thing stunning in a movie boasting a nauseating urine scene, however the recurring butterfly motif in $POSITIONS is price noting. Not solely does it signify Mike’s late mom’s eternal presence in his life, however it concurrently acts as a logo of hope within the midst of despair, simply as Daley meant.
$POSITIONS premieres on the South by Southwest Movie & TV Competition on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Further showtimes and knowledge will be discovered right here.