In June 2023, a very specific list of films was added to Letterboxd, titled, “oh this guy is so f*cked. there’s absolutely no way he can get more f*cked. (the next scene happens) ohhhh my god.” Movies like After Hours, Fargo, and Uncut Gems fill said gag list, and writer-director Brandon Daley’s new “twitchy, hyper-contemporary comedy” $POSITIONS would fit right in with the anxiety-inducing bunch.
Premiering at SXSW 2025, Daley’s debut feature film follows the trials and tribulations of protagonist Mike Alvarado (Michael Kunicki), a blue-collar Midwesterner who may or may not have a cryptocurrency trading addiction. Spoiler: he totally does. The film begins with Mike in a trance, staring at his phone screen and watching his money deplete in real time on some crypto app featuring a menacing monkey. As Mike snaps out of his hypnotic state — while driving, mind you — the audience meets his passenger, brother Vinny (Vinny Kress): a special-needs man who relies on Mike for everything, unaware that his super-cool bro is not equipped to do so.
Crypto as a Happy Mirage in a Desert of American Melancholy
3.5
/5
$POSITIONS follows Mike Alvarado, a blue-collar worker from Kansas, as he struggles to lift his family out of poverty through speculative cryptocurrency investments. His journey quickly devolves into a gambling addiction, straining his relationships with his girlfriend, mentally disabled brother, and recovering addict cousin.
Release Date
March 8, 2025
Director
Brandon Daley
Runtime
97 minutes
Cast
Reagan Fitzgerald, Kaylyn Carter, Vinny Kress, Michael Kunicki, Trevor Dawkins
Genres
Drama
Writers
Brandon Daley
Pros & Cons
- From its scenery to its costuming to its set decoration, $POSITIONS is visually realistic.
- Michael Kunicki and Trevor Dawkins give stunning emotional performances that illuminate an unpromising world.
- The delightful casting of Vinny Kress, an actor with Down syndrome, and the film’s collaboration with special needs theater organizations offers authentic representation for performers with developmental disabilities.
- Its female characters are very underdeveloped.
- $POSITIONS feels a bit long in its second act, leaning on busyness and general mayhem.
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The skeleton of the story is reminiscent of Benny and Josh Safdie’s Good Time (which also belongs on that Letterboxd list). Both films feature anxious, fairly unlikable protagonists strapped for cash as they make poor life decisions (many being illegal), dragging their developmentally disabled brothers along for the dangerous and utterly nerve-wracking ride.
Unlike the Safdie brothers’ bank heist flick, however, Daley’s $POSITIONS is a semi-autobiographical tale based on his “shameful” time trading stocks and crypto during the COVID-19 quarantine days. Once sucked into the shady and scam-laced world of cryptocurrency, Daley crawled his way out of a hole, deciding to make $POSITIONS as a way to “repent for [his] terrible life decisions” and highlight the harsh realities of his small-town Kansas upbringing.
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Mike Alvarado gloats about “using NFTs to provide liquidity” and working for himself as a “full-time investor,” all while watching his portfolio value plummet. He can’t stop swapping money for XMUN crypto, and every move he makes will leave viewers uneasy and on the verge of spewing profanities at the screen. Feelings of sympathy and melancholy will follow shortly behind the burning anger towards Mike, as it becomes clearer that his life has not been an easy one.
Whether it’s the recent passing of his dear mother, the endless battles with substance abuse that his father (Guido Cameli) and cousin Travis (Trevor Dawkins) endure, or his “childhood trauma” that severely impacts his sex life with his girlfriend, Charlene (Kaylyn Carter), Mike is both a symptom of his middle-of-nowhere Americana world and a modern cautionary tale. With vulnerability, humility, bleak realism, and a healthy dose of gross-out humor, $POSITIONS is at times a spellbinding tragedy weaved into a raunchy ’90s-to-early-2000s-style comedy.
A Despicable Protagonist You Just Can’t Help But Root For
There’s hardly anything redeemable about Mike. He’s selfish and judgmental, he doesn’t learn from his mistakes, he puts his loved ones in harm’s way, and he makes zero effort to change his reality. Self-improvement and the willingness to take accountability aren’t exactly on Mike’s bingo card for this year or the next. His laundry list of flaws are part of what makes him a fantastic main character, though. Mike is undoubtedly a mess, but he’s also dynamic and spirited, which makes it easy to cheer whenever his stupid crypto balance goes up, even if it’s for just a moment. As he approaches each hurdle with eagerness and desperation, only the most twisted of viewers will wish for his downfall.
Mike is outwardly fearful of the addiction that plagues his family members, even bragging about never having had a beer (just like Donald Trump). “I understand laborers such as yourself can destroy your brains and bodies with drugs and alcohol, but I have to stay sharp as a tack to maximize my returns,” Mike tells a former coworker. With his father drinking himself into oblivion to cope with the loss of his wife, and his violent addict cousin finding himself stuck in an endless loop of jail, “recovery,” and relapse, Mike’s resistance is understandable. That being said, his crypto trading is clearly a compulsive gambling addiction, which stimulates the reward system in the brain just as drugs and alcohol do.
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Mike lacks self-awareness in many ways, sometimes exhibiting a Michael Scott-esque false sense of confidence. Just like Steve Carell’s beloved character, Mike would surely also say, “I love inside jokes. Love to be a part of one someday.” Of course, the cheesy smile masks eternal pain, and Michael Kunicki performs this saddening juggling act skillfully. As each baffling jumble of optimistic words leaves Mike’s mouth, Kunicki’s face always paints a more honest picture. Mike is written to near-perfection, and his fear, pain, shame, and anxiety come through vibrantly thanks to Kunicki’s strong performance.
A Middling Second Act and Underdeveloped Female Characters Keep $POSITIONS From Greatness
SXSW
Not every contemporary film needs to be a beacon of feminist cinema; let’s get that out of the way. However, it’s a bit disappointing that $POSITIONS fails to pass the controversial Bechdel test — unless the group of unnamed women playing Never Have I Ever for less than 60 seconds counts (it doesn’t). To be clear, celebrated feminist cartoonist and author Alison Bechdel has admitted the Bechdel test was written to be “a joke,” and that she “didn’t ever intend for it to be the real gauge it has become.” With just three simple rules, the test can be limiting. But not passing the Bechdel test isn’t the real issue at hand; the women of $POSITIONS are completely flat and lack purpose. Mike’s Aunt Barb (Sue Hausmann) is essentially a numb placeholder of a character, which would be excusable if his girlfriend, Charlene, was whole.
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For much of the film, Charlene accepts the crumbs she’s given. She has a boyfriend who always puts himself first — truthfully, it’s unclear what she’s getting out of the relationship at all. Sure, it’s nice to see Charlene eventually choose herself, but that doesn’t cancel out her being written to be a promiscuous, surface-level ditz.
While the derogatory “bimbo” character is certainly a trope of ’90s and early-2000s comedies, Charlene doesn’t feel like a satirical homage to a particular moment in time. She feels unfinished and at times offensive. Her life aspirations are a mystery, and she wholeheartedly believes Mike is “a crypto genius,” despite all the contradictory evidence directly in front of her. A handful of solid one-liners come from Charlene, and Kaylyn Carter’s delivery is great. Still, Charlene doesn’t exactly scream “strong female character.”
The second act of $POSITIONS gets a bit muddy, with Daley seemingly relying on overstimulation and chaos to keep things action-packed. In all fairness, the story continues to develop throughout, and the explosive third act makes up for the dragging and minor inconsistencies in tone in the middle portion.
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All in all, $POSITIONS is a brutally honest portrait of lower-income life in Midwestern America, shining a realistic light on harrowing situational struggles with heart and outlandish humor. It may seem silly to point out something beautiful in a film boasting a nauseating urine scene, but the recurring butterfly motif in $POSITIONS is worth noting. Not only does it represent Mike’s late mother’s everlasting presence in his life, but it simultaneously acts as a symbol of hope in the midst of despair, just as Daley intended.
$POSITIONS premieres at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Additional showtimes and information can be found here.
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