Greed (2019) review

For his 60th birthday, billionaire Sir Richard McCreadie (Steve Coogan) - who made his fortune by exploiting garment workers in Sri Lanka - throws himself an expensive party in Greece - that involves the construction of an amphitheater and various celebrity appearances (Keith Richards, Stephen Fry etc.) - while a journalist (David Mitchell) goes around interviewing people who know McCreadie from back in his early days.  For a filmmaker who made a wonderfully spunky and clever film about the music scene in Manchester (24 Hour Party People), going after a scuzzy businessman for being unscrupulous and cruel is pretty low-hanging fruit (the title, too, shows a lack of imagination) but then when he tries to tie it in with the whole refugee situation in Europe ... well, I'm not sure where he's going with all that (that's really another movie altogether).  The one-liners are pretty hit-or-miss (Coogan lands a few), though I think it's funny that Asa Butterfield's whole function in the movie is to validate the references to Gladiator and a certain play by Sophocles - McCreadie is a jerk, but no one deserves to be eaten by a lion.