Billionaires don’t understand the world like most people do. A billionaire is a person who never has to their laundry, because they’ve got someone on the payroll to do that. They don’t know what it’s like to be on a crowded bus smelling the growing amount of sweat. A billionaire is someone who sees the world in a way the majority of people don’t. Can we really trust a billionaire to understand something like an economic bubble?
This is the the question that the Beanie Bubble asks of those who watch it. This film stars Zach Galifianakis (from the Hangover series and Baskets) as Ty Warner, the creator of the Beanie Baby. A tiny version of a stuffed animal that took the world by storm, the film depicts his rise and fall from the lends of three women who impacted his life in large ways.
First, there’s the business partner (played by Elizabeth Banks from the Hunger Games series) who helped him launch his company. Secondly, there’s the young computer science student (played by Geraldine Viswanathan from Bad Education) who puts their company online, resulting in the beginning of the Beanie Baby Bubble. And lastly, there’s the single mother (played by Sarah Snook from Succession) he fell in love with, whose children inspired the creation that led to his massive success.
The Beanie Bubble jumps around in its narrative from the early 80s up to the bubble’s burst in the late 90s. Alongside this narrative, the film continuously jumps between perspectives between the woman in his life. It isn’t so much concerned with showing Warner by his actions, but more how his actions are received by the people around him. It’s an interesting take on a biopic, showing the subjective perspective of the people affected by the subject.
Galifianakis is excellent in the role, portraying a dandy, a businessman, a design genius, and a young boy yearning for love all at once. It’s a variety of complicated emotions he must portray, and he does so without his stereotypical beard he’s become famous for. Losing the beard helps to immerse him in the role, because it doesn’t feel like we’re watching Zach Galifianakis. We’re watching Ty Warner. But while the film does excel with its lead performer, it needs to be able to draw us in with the other performers.
Snook, Viswanathan, and Banks are each stellar as the women who find themselves taking care of this billionaire’s whimsy. Now the story isn’t a direct adaptation of the truth, these women all have their names changed but are based on their real counterparts. While Banks and Snook both do a good job, the brightest star of them is Viswanathan. She performs with an immense confidence, as if she truly embodied this character. She’s had a great deal of success in the past few years, from Miracle Workers and Blockers among many others. And with the Beanie Bubble, she’s turned in another fantastic performance in what will hopefully be a long lasting career.
Where the film somewhat falters is in how the narrative unfolds. Right from the beginning, the film shows that it will frequently around jump around in time in exploring the narrative. While this does work, it leans more into confusion towards the end. Viewers may find themselves confused at what exactly they’re watching, when this is supposed to happen. It’s an intriguing idea, to tell the story of a man through the women he interacts with over separate timelines which interact with each other. But it’s one that needs a lot of thought put into it, and a great deal of time in the cutting room.
But a slightly confusing narrative as it trips towards its conclusion doesn’t take away from the power of the performances. Both Viswanathan and Galifianakis deliver some of their finest work here, especially the latter. This is a well done movie about one of the crazier economic bubbles out there, and the one that grew and burst due to the rise of the internet. This entertaining film gets a 4/5, you can watch it on Apple TV+.
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