Notícias

Fact-based “The Wolf of Wall Street” won criticism from some quarters for seeming to revel in its protagonist’s sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, while barely chiding him for the predatory, large-scale financial fraud that funded it. Cuneyt Kaya’s new “Rising High” offers a similar disconnect in its fictive tale of bold chicanery in the realm of high-end real estate, treating its heroes’ climb to ill-gotten wealth as a vicarious thrill ride, with scant attention paid to the victims they presumably bankrupt.

This new Netflix offering from Germany is slick and energetic. But even as a mostly less-than-serious (let alone credible) criminal caper, it has a distinctly second-hand feel. We’ve partied with more-or-less these same plucky, covetous nobodies before, watched lookalike scenes of wenching, snorting and bling-flaunting. Their familiarity breeds a certain contempt. This is a competently crafted movie too shallow to come up with much...