Film

Floored

Name: Floored
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2009
Cast: Bobby Ansani, Jeff Ansani, Ron Beebe

Workplace drama

Floored captures the kinetic chaos of Chicago's trading floors in their final years before electronic systems displaced the open-outcry system. It's a fly-on-the-wall documentary about men in neon jackets making fortunes and losing them in seconds, driven by adrenaline and ego. A portrait of a dying world where physical presence and instinct still mattered.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are fascinated by how people actually work in a place where the job is loud, physical and bluntly about money, and you like documentaries that let real faces and real stakes carry the story.

Skip it if you want a film that explains the economy to you; this one sticks to the floor, its noise and its traders, and leaves the bigger picture mostly to your own reading.

What it asks of you: Seventy-seven minutes, shot close and kept moving, with little narration to guide you. You need to keep up with the shouting and the hand signals yourself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Big Short2015

Shows the other side of the same broken system—how traders and bankers deliberately engineered the 2008 collapse while ordinary people lost everything. Stylish, propulsive, genuinely angry beneath the surface.

But Sometimes the visual tricks and fourth-wall breaks feel like they're trying too hard to make finance entertaining rather than letting the enormity speak for itself.

Boiler Room2000

A narrative feature that nails the addictive rush of the trading mentality: young men in cramped spaces talking themselves into believing they're masters of the universe through sheer force of will and deception.

But It's aggressively 2000 in tone and pacing, and the script sometimes mistakes cynicism for depth when it's really just showing off.

Barbarians at the Gate1993

HBO film about a hostile takeover that captures how financial ambition becomes personal obsession. Features one of James Garner's sharpest performances and real chemistry between rivals who respect each other's hunger.

But Made for television in the early 90s, so it has that particular TV-movie earnestness that hasn't aged into charm—it just feels dated.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Floored

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pumping Iron1977

Both capture male competition in self-contained worlds where victory is measurable and the hierarchy is visible. The trading floor and the bodybuilding stage are both theaters where ego and discipline produce visible results.

Documentary about bodybuilders obsessed with sculpting their bodies into perfection, with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the center. Like Floored, it's about men competing for physical dominance and ego validation in a closed, ritualistic arena where size and presence are currency.

But It's campy and occasionally condescending toward its subjects. The '70s aesthetic, while charming, sometimes feels like it's winking at the audience rather than respecting what these men care about.

Margin Call2011

Set over a single night as a bank realizes it's about to collapse. Quietly terrifying, with an ensemble cast giving the material real weight. The best thing the 2008 crisis has inspired as drama.

But It's deliberately paced and conversational—some will find it slow; others will wish it had more visceral energy given the stakes.

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

If you want the maximalist, id-on-display version of trader culture: excess, manipulation, the intoxication of winning. Scorsese and DiCaprio are operating at full tilt, and it's exhilarating even as it's repugnant.

But Three and a half hours of watching a charismatic sociopath be rewarded for his behavior can feel like a morality play written by someone who secretly admires the villain.

Rogue Trader1999

True story of Nick Leeson bringing down Barings Bank through unauthorized trading. Ewan McGregor captures the seduction of feeling smarter than the system, and the film doesn't let him off easy when it collapses.

But Once you understand what he did, the film mainly repeats the same psychological points; it's dramatically inert in its second half.

Too Big to Fail2011

HBO film following the actual decision-makers during the 2008 crisis, with an all-star cast. It's procedural and urgent, showing panic in real time at the highest levels of power.

But Because it's told from the perspective of the men trying to save the system, it can feel sympathetic to people who arguably deserve none. It's their story, not the story of what happened to everyone else.

The Queen of Versailles2012

Both watch ambition and excess in real time, but Queen of Versailles captures what happens when the trading floor culture moves into the wider world and crashes into ordinary economic reality.

Documentary following a real-estate magnate and his wife building the largest private home in America as the 2008 financial crisis unfolds. It's Floored's logical conclusion: the mentality that builds fortunes suddenly looks obscene when the economy collapses.

But The filmmakers' attitude toward their subjects shifts unevenly between satire and sympathy, and sometimes it's unclear what they actually think about what they're filming.

Overnight2003

Both examine what happens to people who believe their own hype. Overnight shows an individual trader destroying himself through overconfidence; Floored shows a whole culture built on that same dangerous certainty.

Underground documentary about filmmaker Troy Duffy's catastrophic meltdown after selling his screenplay for $1 million. It's about the intoxication of sudden wealth and the personality collapse that follows. The same adrenaline-drunk certainty traders have, but turned inward and visible frame-by-frame.

But It's almost unwatchable in its cringe and humiliation—watching a man destroy himself in real time. Some viewers will find it too cruel, even though he gave the filmmakers complete access.