Chris DiMatteo
Response to Broke
March 13, 2014 Broke is a film that looks at the sudden boom in the wages of athletes and the impact that overnight going from minimum wage to a multi-million dollar contract can have. On one hand it is a film that sort of needs us to feel sorry for young men who are given wealth beyond the grasp of the vast majority of us but on the other hand it is a serious subject that does need someone to deal with it. As the film observes, often it is people from lower-income backgrounds who have little background in managing larger sums of money who end up winning the lottery overnight with no idea of what to do with it and the impression that it will last forever. Suffice to say that I was interested to see a film that could overcome the "screw them" factor and present the reality in a factual and interesting way.

Sadly this isn't the film to do that – even though it does have its moments. The film starts out with a good collection of talking heads discussing the spending, the views, and the habits of some athletes when it comes to money and as this is discussed there are details and real examples to back up these experiences. Problem is – throughout the film it is presented in a very lively and upbeat way; this makes it more accessible as a film but at the same time it undermines itself as a documentary. This isn't helped by many of those who are contributing cannot help but enjoy relating their stories of excess and fun – so while they appear to be making the point of "don't do what I did", their smiles and spark in their eyes seem to suggest that they would live that high-life again in a split second if they got the chance. Some are worse than others but the majority are like this and it is hard to take the film seriously when the contributors come over like they are telling stories about the time they got drunk – full of