Is bomb the end for Kevin Spacey?
Kevin Spacey’s new movie hit theatres this weekend. So, why didn’t you hear anything about it?
The two-time Oscar winner has essentially been excommunicated from Hollywood after more than a dozen men and teen boys came forward last fall with accusations of sexual harassment and assault, including Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who says Spacey made sexual advances on him when he was just 14.
Since then, Spacey has been fired from his hit Netflix series House of Cards, which will end with a sixth and final season starring Robin Wright this fall. He also was wiped entirely from All the Money in the World after director Ridley Scott made the bold decision to recast him with Christopher Plummer and reshoot scenes just seven weeks before the film’s release in December. The move paid off for Plummer, who netted an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his portrayal of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty.
Netflix similarly dropped Gore, a Spacey-led Gore Vidal biopic that was set for release this year, which could make the new Billionaire Boys Club the actor’s last bigor small-screen outing.
The movie, which premièred at the Sundance Film Festival in January, co-stars Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) and Taron Egerton (the Kingsman movies), and it has earned just 13 per cent positive reviews from critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes. (Moviegoers were more forgiving: 42 per cent gave it a thumbs-up.)
The film was unceremoniously dumped on video-on-demand and digital platforms such as iTunes and Amazon in July and opened Friday in just eight theatres, playing in or near cities such as Phoenix, New Orleans, Minneapolis and Chicago.
The Hollywood Reporter says the film earned just $425 US in the U.S. Friday through Sunday, though distributor Vertical Entertainment hasn’t released weekend numbers. According to Box Office Mojo, Billionaire Boys Club has earned $1.5 million internationally in the last month.
So is Billionaire really as bad as its abysmal reviews and cagey release suggest? Short answer: no, but it might be something even worse — completely forgettable. The movie is based on the real-life Billionaire Boys Club, a group of wealthy young men in 1980s Los Angeles who ran a Ponzi scheme and wound up getting involved with shady investor/con man Ron Levin (Spacey).
As portrayed by Spacey, Ron is smooth-talking and flamboyant, splurging money he doesn’t have on brightly coloured tailored suits, a Rolls-Royce and his dog. He is a mentor of sorts to burgeoning scammers Joe Hunt (Elgort) and Dean Karny (Egerton) in their getrich-quick scheme.
There are occasional uncomfortable moments, given the allegations against Spacey. Levin, who was gay, surrounds himself with handsome young men and leeringly gazes at Joe throughout their first meeting at his mansion.
Still, Spacey makes for a convincing, charismatic bad guy, and the film suffers when he’s not onscreen, as his co-stars spout empty clichés about money, women and how to get them both.