Where to watch ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ ‘The Big Short,’ and other movies to put GameStop in context

By Christopher Zara

January 29, 2021

Perhaps this week’s unusual news cycle with its incessant updates about a certain video-game retailer has inspired you to learn more about the inner workings of Wall Street.

As luck would have it, Hollywood has visited this topic many times, sometimes even to brilliant effect. When we checked the “top movies chart” on Apple’s iTunes on Friday, we couldn’t help but notice that at least two of the most popular Big Finance movies in recent memory were already creeping up into the top five: Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street and Adam McKay’s The Big Short. Clearly, we’re not the only ones thinking about it.

With that said, here is a shortlist of topical movies to stream this weekend. On the off chance that GameStop, short sellers, hedge funds, or Reddit traders will dominate the news again next week, these films will help to put it all into context. Enjoy!

    Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2019): What better time to watch a documentary based on economist Thomas Piketty’s groundbreaking best-seller? (Netflix)

    The Big Short (2015): Adam McKay’s incisive comedic drama about the 2007-8 financial crisis and the schemers who profited from it. (iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu)

    The Wolf of Wall Street (2013): Martin Scorsese’s profanity-laced drama about a hedonistic stockbroker and pump-and-dump fraudster. (YouTube, iTunes, Vudu, Amazon)

    The Margin Call (2011): J.C. Chandor’s day-in-the-life thriller about a fictional investment bank in the throes of the 2008 collapse. (YouTube, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu)

    Wall Street (1987): The classics never go out of style. You know the speech. Now rewatch the movie. (Vudu, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube)

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