Trader is a unique beast in its dramatic delights and pacing
Trader. // Courtesy XYZ Films
Originality is hard to come by anymore. Instead, the onus is often on filmmakers and creatives to either refresh existing stories or find new ways of exploring familiar subjects. Often, independent films are particularly successful in this arena, putting old tales in a new light.
By that metric, Trader is the platonic ideal of an independent feature. It earns this praise by its innovative use of a single character and location that tell an expansive story. Writer/director Corey Stanton and actor Kimberly-Sue Murray take what is essentially a stage play and turn it into one of the most original and entrancing indie thrillers of the past decade.
When we first meet the nameless protagonist (Murray, henceforth known as “the trader”) she’s in her basement apartment, scamming the elderly out of their credit card and pharmaceutical information. As she stares at her bank account, she notices a new feature on the site, “e-commerce trading.” That sets off a lightbulb in her head and leads her down a path filled with destruction and untold riches.
The first sign that Trader is a unique beast is the pacing. Right away it launches into a feverish frenzy. The trader herself is a whirling dervish of skills and discipline, fueled by amphetamines, energy drinks and wasabi paste. Things only ever slow down occasionally for explanations of more dense day trading concepts; going long, going short, risk tolerance, equal rate rating, bull markets and the like.
In this way, Trader works as a kind of Wall Street crash course, as Murray’s Trader dives in world headfirst while simultaneously researching every term. She devours it all, aided by a podcast hosted by Bob the Broker (Shaun Benson), whose voice becomes her lifeline, mentor and frenemy in this high-stakes world. Desperate to make a big play that will allow her to sit at the high roller table, the Trader sets her sights on a white whale: a major pharmaceutical company releasing the results of drug trials that could make or break her meteoric rise.
Trader. // Courtesy XYZ Films
Stanton manages to make all this overwhelming insider information digestible, first by having the Trader engage in a rigorous handwritten trial and error process, attempting to find a formula that can then be implemented in the real world.
Then, when the real show begins, Murray sets up an elaborate light display, where green equals good and red equals bad. This makes an easy explainer for the viewer that also helps build up tension.
As straightforward as Trader is, comparing it to anything else comes with caveats. It’s Boiler Room, but with one character. It’s American Psycho minus the bloodshed. If that sounds nefarious, it should.
The Trader’s actual identity—her background and life details—is a mystery. The film’s opening subtitle states, “This is a Success Story,” and that’s the entire point: winning. It’s not born out of revenge, fear, or some ideology. It’s winning for the sake of winning, and given how things develop, that by itself is terrifying.
Given that Murray’s is the only face we see for the entire 84 minutes, her performance carries all the stakes. She throws herself into that role with manic gusto, switching gears only when the character morphs into whoever is needed to get that moment’s job done. For essentially being a two-person production, Trader comes off far better than most bloated blockbusters. It crafts an experience that’s as awe-inspiring as it is thrilling.
