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| Cold Wallet |
One of the highlights of this year’s SXSW, Cutter Hodierne’s Cold Wallet is an edgy little thriller with deeply human characters and some great performances. It follows a group of people caught up in a cryptocurrency scheme who resolve to track down the man responsible and hold him hostage until he reveals the location of the cold wallet – the resource they need to recover their losses. They’re not the sharpest tools in the box, and have no real experience of how to do this kind of thing, so naturally events don’t go to plan, making the situation more and more dangerous for all involved.
“I developed the script with John Hibey, who I work with all the time, and he's a close friend and collaborator and a totally brilliant writer,” said Cutter when we met at the start of the festival. “I got swept up in the whole GameStop movement a couple years ago and got really fascinated with the culture and the gallows humor around Reddit message boards and things like that. I was working with Test Pilot Productions on a film about doxing. It was a very broad concept, but after I spoke with one of my really good other collaborators, Justin Staple, he gave me this idea: why not do a doxing film with crypto, like a crypto heist thriller? So we brought on John, and John and I developed the script together, and then we made the film.
“My roots go back all the way to the AMC GameStop thing. I even co-produced a documentary about that a few years ago, but I was swept up into that along with everybody else.”
I tell him I’m surprised that there aren't really many films yet about cryptocurrency, given what a huge impact it's had on lots of people's lives.
“I would say there are a lot of documentary films, particularly about scams and rug pulls in the crypto space,” he says. “I took a lot of inspiration from those films. I really credit Justin, because Justin's been a big part of it. He's a filmmaker and worked at Vice, and it was involved in crypto projects, and he's always ahead of the curve on what's cool and what's happening. So I just trusted his instinct that this was good timing for this. But I also knew in my heart this is something that's culturally relevant. It's humorous and funny, but then also it's very serious, and it's a reflection of wealth inequality and resource hogging.
“In some ways, crypto is just the MacGuffin. It could be money, it could be whatever. This is what happens whenever society revolves around capitalism, so I think it’s a movie that you could make in many eras, and crypto is the current thing that this felt relevant for, because at the end of the day, it's a dark comedy heist. At the center of it is money and desperation.”
Was calling this currency Tulip a reference to one of those previous periods, then?
“Indeed it was. Exactly. It's obviously tulip mania. And we refer to the characters in the film as tulip maniacs – going back all the way to 1636.”
It’s easy to laugh at the characters for being so foolish as to get into this mess, and the film makes room for us to do so, but they’re also people whom it’s easy to get attached to and keep rooting for.
“I would say an important part of filmmaking is treating your characters as people that you love, and never being condescending,” he says. “I am definitely drawn to characters that get in over their heads and get wrapped up in crazy schemes. I just love characters like that. And I think that I'm one of those people. Making movies is intentionally getting yourself wrapped up into something that is insane. We're playing really high stakes make believe.
“My favourite acting coach is this woman named Judith Weston, and she talks a lot about that. In preparing for a role or preparing to work with your cast on telling a story, you should be truly empathising with the character, even if it’s the villain. In our film, Josh Brener and I talked often about what it’s like when the home invaders are in the other room and he's in there alone – like, how terrified he is, and then the face that he puts on when they're back. So I think in all directions, whether you're sort of poking fun at their gullibility or whatever, it's important that you're always doing that with love. I think that's the way to strike that balance.”
I tell him it's interesting that he says that about the villain, because we see him go into a mode where he starts using his fast talking skills – that's the talent that he has, and he's calculated that it's his best chance of getting out of there. So we see that artificial layer, but there's his fear behind that. How did you work with Josh to bring both of those things out?
“Well, first and foremost, Josh is totally fucking brilliant, both as an actor and just as a person. I mean, he went to Harvard. He's really well trained in acting and just has great instincts. One day on the set, he was pitching an idea but he was a little hesitant whether to do it. And I just said to him ‘I've really brought you here because of your instincts.’ With all of the cast members, there's a certain level of, you've seen their previous work, you've talked about the role, and when you like what their natural tendencies are, it's the best feeling. And so I really tried to empower them, and particularly Josh, to lean into those instincts, because he was playing a really complicated character.
“He's a villain, but he's not your stereotypical villain. He's not someone you expect to become violent and turn on them. I think it was an interesting balance that just really came from, like, ‘Let's talk about the fear. Let's talk about how actually fucking scared you are in these moments. And this façade that you're putting up is a defense mechanism. You use your brilliance and your wit against these guys to make them all feel a little bit special and to bring them up to your level.’
“It was a complicated role. That was a character that I think John Hibey really shaped and was something that came from the page, this kind of maniacal guy. But there’s nobody like Josh to bring alive that kind of duality. He's not particularly physically imposing, but he's mentally really able to get in their thinking. I'm just so proud of him. I think Josh is known for these comedic roles, and there's certainly humor in his sarcasm in this role. But as we were cutting the film and as we were shooting the film, I just felt like, man, I'm so excited that the world is going to be able to see Josh play a role like this. It's such a different thing than what we've seen him do before, but I feel like it has been there all along and he’s been just been waiting for a character like Charles Hegel for him to lean into.”
There's some of that duality in other aspects of the film as well. Comedy is balanced with some quite scary thriller elements. So how did he shift gears like that and keep the balance right?
“That's a great question. I think went into it with this idea that it can't take itself too seriously, that the thriller is just this completely dark, totally over the edge kind of thing. If there's this cliff that the thriller is falling over, comedy is keeping it from totally falling off that cliff. We discussed it a lot, but as soon as we started shooting, it just became making the decision of what was right for that particular moment, both in how we shot the scene and in how the scene got executed. Once we were doing it was just a natural flow and we no longer really thought about it. Plus, it's kind of how I see the world. I just love the dark world of things, and yet I see the world with a lot of humour. So this is a fun thing to balance.”
He’s also having fun at South by Southwest.
“I think it's a perfect platform for the movie because it's an intersectional festival. It's not just a film festival. It's tech, it's conferences, it's AI, it's music. And that is, I think, kind of the fun thing about this movie. Cold Wallet is for film fans but I think it's for crypto fans, too, and people in the crypto world. And then it's also just for people who are looking for a fun time at the movies. And I think South By has that. It seems like there's a more cheerful spirit to things, and I think the intersectionality of the festival is what makes it a perfect fit.”
