''Crypto'' is a 2019 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

about

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

and

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

. The film was directed by John Stalberg Jr., and written by Carlyle Eubank, David Frigerio and Jeffrey Ingber. It stars Beau Knapp,

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American Actor, actress and Model (person), model. She is best known for her roles as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007) and Emily Malek in ''The Handm ...

, Luke Hemsworth and

Kurt Russell Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor before transitioning to leading roles as an adult in various genres such as action adventures, science-fiction, westerns, romance films, co ...

. The film was released on April 12, 2019 in the United States by

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

Plot

Martin "Marty" Duran is an

anti money laundering Anti may refer to: Arts, entertainment, media *ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival, a yearly international live-art festival held in Kuopio, Finland *Anti-ship (often shortened to just "anti"), a position held in Shipping discourse Music * Anti ...

(AML) analyst at Omnicorp Bank headquarters in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. He produces a report showing that a potential client, a $7 billion corporation, has violated AML rules, killing the deal. The CEO wants him fired, but the head of AML, Robin, believes in him and saves himthough he is demoted to a branch in his tiny hometown of

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

, in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

. He reunites with a childhood friend, Earl, who owns a failing liquor store, but is a computer genius who stays above water by mining cryptocurrency. He has a much less successful reunion with his brother, Caleb, and father, Martin Sr., who work a failing potato farm that is going to be repossessed by Martin’s bank. Marty meets Katie, who works at an art gallery, her boss Penelope, and their accountant, Ted. Marty's AML review of the bank’s records lead him to investigate the gallery. Earl helps him by hacking various computer banks. Together, they uncover a multi-million dollar

scheme, helping a deadly

Russian mafia The Russian mafia ( or ), also known as Bratva ( ; ) less as Obshchak (Общак) or Brigades (Бригады) , is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating or/and operating in Russia. In December 2009, Timur ...

group. Earl, Penelope and Marty’s predecessor at the branch are killed by Viktor and Nikos, Ted's thugs. Earl had couriered Marty a memory stick with evidence that Robin is facilitating the entire money laundering scheme at Omnicorp. Ted and his thugs hold Martin Sr. hostage to get the evidence, but Marty and Caleb spring a trap on them, supported by Katie and her FBI colleagues, as Marty deduced who she was. Robin is arrested and Marty starts cryptocurrency mining at the farm, saving their finances, while starting to date Katie.

Cast

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on June 15, 2018 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with multiple scenes shot in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston, ...

. John Stalberg Jr. directed the film from the original story by Jeffrey Ingber and the screenplay by Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio, while producers would be Yale Productions' Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman along with Frigerio.

Reception

Critical reception was largely negative, with

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

ranking the film as "rotten" with 5 negative reviews and one positive.

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

of ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4, stating that ''Crypto'' had enough surprising and "offbeat" moments for a marginal recommendation as a "wonderfully convoluted guilty-pleasure". In contrast, Noel Murray of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote: "The characters all feel like they’ve been copied and pasted from hundreds of other movies".

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes American crime thriller films 2019 crime thriller films Films about cryptocurrencies Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City Films about fraud Money laundering 2019 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language crime thriller films Films scored by Nima Fakhrara