If $Positions were an after-school special, it could be called, "You're a dumbass, Charlie Brown."
I say that with equal parts affection and disdain, as $Positions is an incredibly difficult film to like, but intentionally so. It succeeds in every task it sets out to do, even if the results are often hard to watch.
$Positions is set in the Midwest, though it plays out like a Florida fever dream. Mike (a dedicated Michael Kunicki) is a good-for-nothing layabout who steals from his family and wastes his money on short-sighted hustles. His latest obsession is crypto, one of the biggest pyramid schemes in recent memory.
When the "value" of his digital money jumps to around $30k, Mike does exactly what an idiot would do: He quits his job, tells his girlfriend they should have an open relationship, and acts like he's the king of the world without money troubles. Naturally, the value of crypto tanks within moments, sending Mike on a desperate hunt to recover his perceived losses.
What makes $Positions so effective is how writer/director Brandon Daley treats our collective mania with utmost sincerity. Money is a value agreed upon. Crypto is a sham built on top of that agreement. At no point in the story does Mike actually have the promised quantity of riches. They exist solely in the app, which is built like a gambling site. Yet the sheer addictive nature of watching the numbers go up and down is easy to fall for.
Daley also manages an incredible balancing act of making Mike just about the worst person you'll ever meet, yet somehow wringing out empathy for him. Everything he does is awful. He helps destroy lives and certainly ruins his own with his infantile and toxic behavior. And yet, Daley drops just enough background information for us to understand that even though his surroundings and past don't excuse his actions, they go a long way in explaining why Mike is such a mess.
It's a tremendous piece of filmmaking, helped along by fantastic performances from Kunicki and a heartbreaking turn from Trevor Dawkins, who plays Mike's cousin, Travis. Dawkins has a monologue towards the end of the film that is as haunting as it is unexpected, and it's one of those little treasures I cherish in films like this.
At times, $Positions does veer into the realm of being too mean for its own good. It has an impish, almost juvenile sense of humor that goes too far on purpose. For the first couple of times, the shock value works, and Daley pulls the story back with relative ease. After that, and especially around an extended sex scene, we hit diminishing returns.
Yet somehow, by the end, Daley manages a nearly impossible landing. One that is both earned and satisfying, even in all its bleakness. As the credits hit, I felt exhausted. Whatever the bumps in the road, $Positions takes you on a ride that doesn't let up until it's over.
