031. Saltburn Review + Old Money Movies & Books

Lifestyle

Jan 26

Looking for movie night inspo?

We've got covered. Not only does Amber review the movie SALTBURN, she'll give you the ultimate guide to the best Old Money Movies. From common tropes and recurring themes, these movie & book recommendations are perfect to get you in an Old Money mindset.

In today's episode, we cover the following:

What makes a movie "old money" (1:10)

Review on Saltburn (4:42)

The best Old Money movies (14:40)

Movie #1: The Royal Tenenbaums (14:53)

Movie #2: The Talented Mr. Ripley (16:53)

Movie #3: Cruel Intentions (19:50)

Movie #4: Midnight in Paris (22:55)

Movie #5: The Secret of My Success (26:28)

Movie #6: Crazy Rich Asians (30:36)

Old Money Movie Honorable Mentions (34:39)

Old Money Book Recommendations (38:20)

TRANSCRIPT

Amber F. (00:05)
Hello, rich girls, and surprise. I am popping into your headphones today with a little Amus boosh on the old Money podcast. I'm your host, Amber Frank Hughesen. Today's episode is just a quickie, a little something to wet your appetite, especially if you're looking for a great movie to watch. This weekend, I want to go through what I believe to be one of the best old money movies made recently.

Amber F. (00:26)
I'm a little late to the game, but we have to discuss. I couldn't wait one more second. I needed to run here and discuss it with you. The movie Saltburn. It might be one of the most controversial movies to come out in a long while.

Amber F. (00:38)
And if you haven't seen it yet, don't worry. I will tell you when I'm going to spoil it. When I start the Saltburn review, I will warn you, but I want you to stick around because I also have put together a list of what I believe to be the quintessential old money movie list. Like, these are my favorites. I'm sure there's more out there, but these are the ones that make me feel rich.

Amber F. (01:00)
I love movies that make me feel a certain type of way, and I want to talk about that really quickly, too. What makes an old money movie and what makes it great? This is a trope. A trope is a thing in literature or movies that continually happens. And we hear about this a lot in smut books, like the common ways or devices that the author or the movie maker will use to create tension or intrigue.

Amber F. (01:27)
And some of them are, for example, like enemies to lovers. Like people that start hating each other and then they fall in love. Another really overused one is like the bad boy. Or opposites attract. Like the good girl falls in love with the guy that she knows bad for him, but she changes him in the end.

Amber F. (01:44)
Or like a Hallmark movie, right? Like, there's a girl that lives in the big city and she's crushing in her career, but she has to go home for the holidays. And while she's there, she falls off a ladder and gets hit by a Christmas tree and has amnesia, but it's okay because her childhood crush nurses her back to life. And then she realizes life in the big city ain't so good. That's what a trope is.

Amber F. (02:03)
Okay, I went a little overboard, but you get the point. And there are always tropes within old money flavored movies, books, TV shows, et cetera. And one of them is the fact that there is a character that is the money. So succession is a great example. I don't really consider that old money because they talk about Logan Roy making his own fortune.

Amber F. (02:25)
And typically old money would connotate generational wealth. But money as a character or as a main plot device of the ways that people are motivated to act is the key in an old money movie. So people are being motivated by money. That's definitely true in succession, which I don't consider old money, but also in movies like knives out, for example, people are motivated by the money, right? So money is like a main character.

Amber F. (02:52)
It's a main device plot point. And also you're going to have the visuals of it. Right. What does it look like to live well, what does it look like to have money? I love that so much.

Amber F. (03:03)
But the main trope that you're going to find in an old money movie or book is this trope of insiders and outsiders. There are class distinctions. There are people that have the money and those who do not. So that is always one of the things that I see. And especially as we go through some of these movies on my must see list for old money movies, you're going to see that over and over again.

Amber F. (03:24)
There's insiders and there's outsiders and a lot of the times, the trope is that the outsiders are trying to infiltrate the insiders and can they ever do that successfully? Of course, on top of that, you also have just the traditions, the etiquette, old money families, like culture, the way that they live, the things they say about luxury or money. I just find that to be such an interesting, I don't know, call it like sociological study to kind of see behind the curtain because we don't have access as a regular culture into the traditions of a lot of these old money families. So when they are memorialized on film in a fictional way, it really satisfies the viewer or the reader's need for voyeurism, of looking inside to see how things work in a way that is, I wouldn't even want to say, like, unattainable, but something that they feel like they might never have and are envious of. But that's the other trope.

Amber F. (04:23)
It's the downfall of the bourgeois family and saying that most people, most stories about old money families have to do with everything falling apart in the end. And you will see that as a theme through many of these movies. Okay, so I'm going to start talking about Saltburn, which is a new film that was released in December of 2023. Spoiler alert. I'm going to talk about the movie.

Amber F. (04:49)
So if you want to skip this section, because you either don't want to watch Saltburn, it might not be right for you, by the way, or you want to wait to hear my review until after you watch it, go to the show notes and look for the timestamp for when I start talking about other old money movies, because now I want to talk about Saltburn. Okay, so shout out to TikTok and actually shout out to Viti Rivelli, who is the queen of La Jolla real estate. I saw her dancing around, as she always does on her TikTok. Viti, I love you so much to this song, and you'll get it if you've seen the movie. She's dancing around this beautiful estate in La Jolla saying, like, she just watched Saltburn.

Amber F. (05:25)
And I was like, what is this movie? I've heard a bunch of people talk about it, but what does it have to do with this dancing TikTok trend? Right? So I didn't know anything about the movie. I just said, oh, I heard there's this good new movie. I don't know what it's about. I heard it's kind of obscure. Let's watch it. So I went in completely blind. And if you haven't yet watched Saltburn and you were thinking you were going to spoil it for yourself right now, please don't do it. Go in blind. It's so worth it to just go on the journey. Trust me. The story starts with a young man who shows up at Oxford, and he is looking from the outside in to the cool crowd. There is a guy that is just owning everybody's attention.

Amber F. (06:06)
He's the center of attention. It's Jacob Elordi. Okay? His name in the movie is Felix. And the gentleman from whose perspective we're watching is Oliver, and that's played by Barry Keegan. I think his name is incredible. Incredible acting from him. I loved it so much, and he was really giving Chuck bass vibes for me the whole way through. Anyway, so they're at Oxford, and Felix and Oliver start to form this friendship. And Oliver shares with Felix how know down and out. He doesn't have family support or anywhere to go over the holiday. So Felix invites Oliver back to his family compound called Saltburn. And the compound is compounding. Holy crap. The actual place where they filmed this is a private estate that's owned by a family that opened up the estate for the film.

Amber F. (06:56)
They really allowed the people to come in there. Fortunately, as the filmmakers noted, this wasn't like a historical site. That was restricted by England to be touched. So the family really allowed these people to come in and just take over their house to film it. And the way that the house is designed, it's like the blue room, the yellow room. It feels like the palace of Versailles going on and on. There's footmen that greet Oliver at the door when he gets there. All of this crazy land, there's a maze that's cut out of topiaries. It was giving Harry Potter and the goblet of fire vibes, but unfortunately, that was CGI. So not actually true to the property, but it doesn't matter. It's neither here nor there. They added in some things, like artwork and especially that big statue in the center of the maze, the labyrinth that's outside. But honestly, what I loved so much about this movie was the way that the family felt so comfortable amongst the elegance. And that's what I mean in that trope of the generational wealth is there, but it's not just the money. It's the way that the families interact with the money or interact with the opportunities.

Amber F. (08:08)
First of all, the life of leisure. Like, they're lounging by the pond, they're swimming, they're tanning, but they still get dressed in formal clothes for dinner every single night. I'm obsessed. And the way that the movie portrayed their family time, and I loved this. They did such a good job of capturing the moment, which this was set in the year 2006. So they had movies on, like, super bad, and you're in this incredible estate, but people are lounging around smoking cigarettes on this 15th century furniture and really living in it. And in my research, one of the things that I found that I was so compelled by was that a lot of times when you see these generationally wealthy families or things like, think Downton Abbey for, like, nothing feels like you can touch it. It all feels like it's going to break. But this family really lives in the wealth. They really use it, and they're comfortable in it.

Amber F. (09:02)
They're comfortable in cufflinks for dinner every night. They're comfortable with a life of leisure. I loved the acting by the mother, who is she played gone girl, or amazing Amy in Gone Girl, another book that I loved and movie that I loved. I need to look up her name. Hold on. A Rosamund pike. She was so unaware of her actions. She was so easily manipulated. She was just so perfectly. I don't know, not perfectly cast. Her character was just so perfectly unaware. It was kind of giving Gwyneth Paltrow in the politician. But for me, her unawareness and her rudeness was just such a privilege. She didn't need to be aware. Right? She's allowed to be rude because she's going to be forgiven for it anyway. Based on her status and her dynamic with her husband, who I'm still unclear if he was cognizant through any of the movie, if he was, I don't know, incapacitated or not. And just the way they talk about, oh, I need to go check on the hydrangeas. Just this dialog is so well done of really highlighting the ridiculousness of this entire family. So to cut to the chase, the movie goes on and on. And you see the downfall of the bourgeois family, right? You see the downfall of Jacob Elordi dying, of the sister dying. And one of the things about the movie that's getting a lot of attention is the shock factor. Because Oliver Quick, the main character, uses sex, he uses violence, manipulation, and he has this weird parasocial, weird parasitic relationship with Jacob Elordi. Like, he wants to fuck him.

Amber F. (10:41)
He wants to be him. He wants to be inside of him. It's all very confusing. And so I think his sexuality gets tied up in that a lot. I'm not giving all of the spoilers away, but I felt like the use of shock factor was a successful technique to elevate the emotional height of the movie to Oliver Quick's level of just absolute delusion and confusion. Right. I also feel like everything in this world is heightened so quickly that the use of the shock of it all and the way that Oliver Quick kind of manipulates situations, it allows the viewer to be kept on their toes. And that was really fun to watch. So if you're a person who is not interested in maybe some deviant sexual things, and I don't want to say interested in, I would do what he would do, never. Oh, my God. But my point is, don't recommend this to your grandmother. Probably recommend this to your parents with some caution. It's not something I'd want to watch with a parent, that's for freaking sure. If you have any little squeamishness about you around sexuality, this is not the movie for you. But I think from an artistic point of view, it's really interesting.

Amber F. (11:58)
And I'm not a movie critic by any means. I'm just a casual movie enjoyer. But for me, I felt like the film was so well done. At the end of the film, of course, we find out that Oliver Quick has completely orchestrated every single interaction and death and way that he can to get into this family and infiltrate this family. So this is that other trope, right? The outsider trying to get into the insider, and can they do it? And in this case, Oliver took down the bourgeois family, which was one of the tropes. And he made it from the outside in. But then you look around and he's in this empty estate by himself with nothing to do but run around naked. And sure, he absolutely uses that to his advantage. He bucks all the tradition, all the etiquette that was in that home before, and he has what he wanted to get his hands on. The one thing about the movie that I didn't love so much was that they were very heavy handed in unpacking for us at the end, how Oliver did the undoing of the entire family. They showed him at the very beginning when he first meets Felix, sticking the pin in Felix's bike tire so that his tire will be flat. That was their meet cute situation. And for me, that would have been enough or more allusion to what he did.

Amber F. (13:22)
Instead of heavy handedly, like showing him put the cocaine into the champagne bottle, showing him leave the razor blades on the edge of the tub. If you've watched the movie, you know what I'm talking about. I just felt like leaving it a little bit less perfectly buttoned up would have left me as the viewer wondering if I should hate Oliver. Or maybe I wasn't quite sure what exactly happened, but you would have the illusion that, okay, he started this whole thing by orchestrating the bike tire going flat. So he probably did the rest as well.

Amber F. (13:53)
But the filmmakers left nothing for interpretation. They wanted you to know that Oliver quick was going to get what he wanted, that whole synopsis with nonwithstanding. If you still listened to this but haven't watched the movie and you're down for a little bit of weirdness, I definitely recommend watching this film. I find it was so interesting and it really did a great job of pulling together this dark psychological thriller, this old money world, all of the tropes that we're used to seeing in these old money movies and giving you an escape that you probably don't want to escape into for at least a couple of hours. So with that being said, let's jump into some of what I believe to be the best old money movies that are out there.

Amber F. (14:42)
Some of my favorites. I've seen all of these movies. I love all of these movies. So let's jump into what I believe to be some of the best old money movies out there. Okay. First and foremost, one of my all time favorites is the Royal Tenenbaums. Royal Tenenbaums is an ensemble cast. This movie came out in the early 2000s. It's a Wes Anderson movie. So Wes Anderson has a very distinct style of the cinematography and the art direction, the colors, the music, et cetera. And the Royal Tenenbaums is just the most ridiculous movie with the most ridiculous characters. And it's based off of three siblings. We have Richie, Margot and what's his name, Chaz Tenenbaum. And they're three absolutely brilliant, bright, incredible kids. So the story is really about Jean Hackman and Angelica Houston, who are Royal Tenenbaum, and Etheline Tenenbaum, and they are divorced at this point or they're separated at this point.

Amber F. (15:40)
And the story is about the family dynamic and how Jean Hackman raised Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson to be the types of people that they are and all the dysfunction that comes with it. There's a lot of money involved. We have a super neurotic Ben Stiller. We have Gwyneth Paltrow, who has no finger and is depressed because she's in a loveless marriage. We have Owen Wilson as Eli Cash, this cowboy character who's trying to get into the family in a weird way. Angelica Houston is dating this wonderful guy. It's just a character study. That's really what this movie is. But what makes it so enjoyable to watch are all of the little nuances and all of the silly little idiosyncrasies of the characters and the home that they live in and the way that they interact and how Gene Hackman, as the leader of this family, causes them to always be in chaos. So it's a really enjoyable watch.

Amber F. (16:34)
It's definitely, like, calming. I think this is good for a midday, like Saturday afternoon when you have a glass of champagne, maybe it's raining outside, you just want to be cozy, but you're in the mood for something that's like, kind of feel good and a little silly. So royal tendon bombs is number one on my list. The next movie, that's number. Okay, number two on my list. This is in no particular order, by the way. These are just random suggestions, movies that I love, but the one that everybody always talks about for old money is the talented Mr. Ripley. So you have Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like this cast, again, is absolutely stacked. And the plot of this movie is similar to Saltburn in a way that we have, again, insiders and outsiders. So Matt Damon is the outsider in this movie. And he is tasked with going to retrieve Jude Law from Italy. So the way the movie is shot is beautiful. It's all shot in location in Italy, except for there's a few scenes in the beginning in New York.

Amber F. (17:38)
And by the way, just a fun fact, I read that the role of Matt Damon's character was initially offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, but he turned it down and then Matt Damon got it. So a little bit of fun fact there. So anyway, what happens is Matt Damon is a subject of a case of mistaken identity. He's wearing, like, a Princeton jacket that's borrowed and he's approached by a gentleman who says, oh, my son went to Harvard or to Princeton. Excuse me, you need to go over to Italy and get him, convince him to come back and work in the family business. So Matt Damon gets on this boat and he goes over to find Jude law and bring him back, right? But of course, Matt Damon didn't actually go to Princeton. So he tricks Jude Law into believing that they were classmates. And he starts partying with him and his girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow. Right?

Amber F. (18:23)
So they're like, living the good life. They're hooking up outside of their relationship. So unfortunately, Jude Law gets some other girl in town pregnant. She ends up committing suicide, I think. Or maybe he kills her. I don't remember, actually. But essentially, Jude law starts to get suspicious of Matt Damon because he finds him, like, dancing around in his clothes. Because Matt Damon wants so badly to be Jude Law. And Jude Law is basically, okay, bro, like, I'm over hanging out. This isn't cool anymore. I'm going to go ahead and marry Gwyneth Paltrow. Matt Damon's like, not on my watch. So they get in a fight. But the thing is that Matt Damon actually ends up killing Jude Law because he wants to take over his life. So the whole movie is kind of know, again, that outsider trying to get inside and trying to be the type of person he thinks that they need to be.

Amber F. (19:10)
And while Matt Damon tries to fool everybody to say that Jude Law has run away, the end of the movie reveals if he actually gets away with it or not. Again, this movie is so successful because it's beautifully shot. It's really like, I mean, you have beautiful people in a beautiful scene and know tension between the haves and have nots and trying to get something that wasn't earned. You're trying to steal somebody else's life. But again, we have that same trope of the bourgeois family. Everything falls apart once again. So it's a beautiful movie. This one's definitely a thriller. This is a good nighttime movie with a glass of red wine. I love the talented Mr. Ripley. Another movie that I love to watch. This is one that when it's on TV, I'm going to sit and watch it for sure. And that almost never happens. But this was like one of the childhood movies that I saw that I probably shouldn't have seen, to be honest, at the age that I was.

Amber F. (20:06)
But, oh, my God, it was so good. Released in 1999. I hope you know what I'm going to say. Cruel intentions. Sarah Michelle Geller, Ryan Felipe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair. All these old money movies are stacked by the. Like, they're all ensemble cast. So, so good. Cruel intentions is incredible because, again, we have the haves and the have nots. And one of the reasons this is so compelling is because the haves, people with wealth.

Amber F. (20:33)
Sebastian and, oh, my gosh, I forget her character's name, but Sarah Michelle Geller, they're so wealthy and so bored in a way that they play games with other people's lives. So this whole plot premise is based on a bet between Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Felipe and this tension that they have, the sexual tension between them and the dynamics in their family and their extended family or blended family. And, I mean, we have these people like Selma Blair, who are not aware of the traditions, etiquette, the customs of how to be. So you see her fumbling around in this world of generational wealth, of just being a little bit too immature, a little bit less well bred. But we also see, again, the fall of the bourgeois family, right, of Reese Witherspoon being the outsider, actually getting in that whole trope of the bad boy that we talked about in the smut comic romance novels, right?

Amber F. (21:30)
Like, all of it comes together, and that's why it's so good. But what cruel intentions does so well, and the reason why it was so in my mind as I watched this when I was, like, twelve years old is because it captures the time period so well. First of all, the haircuts, the clothes, the music, that song at the end, that's exactly what I was thinking about with Saltburn. When they play the murder on the dance floor song, I was like, oh, my goodness, this is bittersweet. Symphony in cruel intentions. That song blew up after that movie. And the same way with Saltburn, they just captured the music they had, like the killers in one of the songs. It was just so 2006 this movie, cruel intentions, is so 1999, and I feel like they did it so, so well. And of course, you know, there's tragedy at the end, as there always is in these movies. But I feel like this movie is just such a good weekend.

Amber F. (22:24)
Girls night in movie for yourself when you're just doing your self care. I don't know why I'm assigning all of these drinks to these movies, but what comes to mind for me is like, I'm doing a self care night at home. I'm oiling my hair, I'm doing a mask for my face. I'm doing all the things, and I have a stiff drink next to me. I love cruel intentions so much. And the whole tone, visually, of the movie, it's just giving, like, old money Instagram filter. So I absolutely love it. Okay, the next one is kind of obscure for the old money, I would say genre, but it's one of my favorite movies to watch, and I don't want to get canned for this. Don't hate me because it's a Woody Allen movie, but it's midnight in Paris again with the haves and haves nots. We have Owen Wilson.

Amber F. (23:13)
No. Yeah, not Luke Wilson. Owen Wilson with the blonde hair. And he's married or getting married. He's engaged to Rachel McAdams, and they're on vacation with Rachel Mcadams parents in France and Paris. And there's all of this, again, outsider insider dynamic. We have a struggling writer, Owen Wilson, who's trying to find his way into the enjoyment of this trip. And everything from Rachel McAdams family is know, we've got meetings. We've got to do this. We've got appointments. We're planning the wedding and dinners. And it's just like, no magic. It's just so brutalist, honestly, the way that they act. Yet you have these other characters come into the film that are wildly pretentious, and Rachel McAdams loves them. Right?

Amber F. (23:57)
Like, just so impressed with all this name dropping and art history. And it's just like everything we hate about the traditions and etiquette of old money and all of the formality, it's just painful to watch. And so in this movie, it's a fantasy movie. Owen Wilson's drunk. He's wandering around at night, and this old fashioned car drives by and says, hey, get in. I'll give you a ride. And this old fashioned car takes him back in time to the 1920s, where he starts partying with F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote the great Gatsby and Zelda Fitzgerald and oh my gosh. They talk about Salvador Dali and Ernest Hemingway. Is there, like trying to get the great american novel out in the bar and all of the magic and all of these people who become such legends in history.

Amber F. (24:43)
Owen Wilson gets to experience them in real time while they're working on their art and they're actually having fun. And it's messy and there's drama. And of course, Owen Wilson wakes up in the morning, he goes back to present day and he's trying to explain what happens and he sounds absolutely mad. Then he goes back at night to try to find this car again and gets more involved in the life and the drama of all of these people, all of these great american novelists and artists and poets. And it's just such a fun watch. I love this movie so much. Owen Wilson finds himself through the movie and then comes out the other end better off for it, noticing that he doesn't need to be a part of Rachel McAdams family to do what he needs to do for his life. So again, on this one you have the class distinctions. Another trope is know the rich people are evil, pretentious and miserable. And that's definitely true in this movie for sure.

Amber F. (25:36)
But this one, again, it's a Woody Allen movie. So the music is light, it's kind of fantastical, it's fun. It's very easy to watch. And if you have any sense of appreciation, know that time period or Paris itself, because it's all shot in Paris and it's just visually stunning. If you need inspiration before you go to Paris of what you should see, where you should go, this is the movie to watch. I love this one. Let's think, what's the cocktail to drink when you watch this movie? I don't know why absinthe comes to mind. I feel like it's because of the Ernest Hemingway of it all. And like those old dingy writers bars in Paris and they're always like, advertising absinthe. That's not something I would drink at home. I don't know, maybe an old fashioned would give you a little bit of like, grumpy writer vibes. Definitely champagne. There's a lot of that roaring 20s energy. I guess champagne would be the most appropriate drink for this.

Amber F. (26:26)
But going to a totally different time period, an actual, actual favorite of mine that is totally old money. This is such an obscure one. If you have seen this movie that I'm about to mention before I tell you to go watch it, please DM me. Please tell me because I need to talk to people about how this is my favorite movie. And I feel like it so informed, the way that I work in my adult life and what I thought work would be. It is an absolute classic from the 80s. It's called the Secret to my success with Michael J. Fox. It literally came out the year that I was born, 1987. And I'm obsessed with this movie. First of all, I was, like, a huge back to the future fan when I was a kid. I think Michael J. Fox was my very first crush ever. And in this movie, he's so lovable and young and sweet. Oh, my God, I'm obsessed with J.

Amber F. (27:16)
Fox. But so the story of the secret of my success is that this young kid, Michael J. Fox, comes from, like, Oklahoma or something like that, in Nebraska, and he gets a job in New York City. So he studied so hard, and he's got the floppy hair. He's so fucking cute, and he's getting a job in the big city. So he goes to his job in the big city, he moves to New York, and he gets there, and his job is eliminated. Remember, this is 1987, the height of the recession in the 80s. So this was a very on topic movie where somebody shows up for a job, and it's literally over, right? So he's trying to make it work in New York City. He has a shitty apartment with rats. He can't afford anything, and he's pounding the pavement looking for a job. And he calls his mom, and he doesn't want his mom to know that he's struggling. So he lies to her and says everything's good. Meanwhile, he's getting, like, shot, and there's, like, a robbery happening in the background. There's a little bit of physical comedy and things that happen in this movie, too.

Amber F. (28:09)
Anyway, so his mom says you should reach out to your uncle and see if you can connect with him. And his uncle just so happens to be incredibly, incredibly wealthy and successful. He's the head of a company in New York City. His aunt Verna is the relation in the family. Somehow, some way, he gets in there and gets a meeting with his uncle. And in the meantime, he accidentally seduces his aunt Verna. So that's a little fun wrinkle. But he ends up getting a job as a mailboy in the mailroom. And he starts living a life of two identities. So similarly, know the talented Mr. Ripley. We have the haves and haves nots, and I don't want to say mistaken identity, because Michael J. Fox takes on another identity. This kid has big dreams, so he pretends to be a executive that got a new job, and he sets himself up in an office and calls himself Carlton Whitfield. And in the meantime, he falls in love with another woman in the office who just might also be sleeping her way to the top.

Amber F. (29:07)
And the reason this is so good is because his aunt Verna ends up helping him navigate through being two people, Brantley Foster and Carlton Whitfield. I will never get those names out of my, you know, they go to this big retreat on their palatial estate in the Hamptons, and it's networking, and it's all these fat cats, like, talking about business. And then Brantley and his aunt and this woman that he falls for end up taking over the company and putting his uncle out of business. It's one of the most enjoyable, compelling movies was I just wanted to watch it one day. I think it's on Amazon prime. You can rent it or download it or whatever. And I had it on one Saturday afternoon when I was just hanging out, wanting something to watch. And Justin got so hooked. I was like, please watch this movie with me. And he was totally in it.

Amber F. (29:56)
The plot is so good. It's so silly and fun, but it's got work, it's got love, it's got all the things. And super fun fact, the music in this one is also so good. In fact, I wanted this theme song to be the theme song to the podcast. But, like, just the royalties, you can't even navigate through that. But just a fun fact, David Foster composed the music for this movie. If you know Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Yolanda Foster, you know who David Foster is. But the music soundtrack is so, so good. It's an older one, but it's absolutely worth the watch. Okay, just one more formal review and suggestion, and then I have some, I will call them runners up or honorable mentions. But the last one, which is another movie that I absolutely love to watch, I read the book first, is crazy rich Asians. I am obsessed with asian culture, tradition, oh, my goodness. And the wealth that's in Asia beyond. So, first and foremost, if you haven't yet watched the reality shows on Netflix, Dubai bling. And then there's also one called Bling Empire.

Amber F. (31:06)
Bling empire is not as good as Dubai Bling. They're both very silly reality shows. It's barely scratching the surface of these uber wealthy people in the asian culture, you guys, I'm obsessed. Just their reverence for their elders, their traditions, the way that they deal with things like marriage and bringing people into the family the dynasties. So interesting. Yet again, we have some of those common tropes, like generational wealth and people who are very at ease with wealth, whether it was given to them or they earned it. We also have this dynamic of insiders and outsiders. And so this is a love story where the main character is dating this man, and he's like, you need to fly back to. I think Singapore is where they go initially and meet my family. And she is just a regular working class girl.

Amber F. (31:55)
And he thrusts her into this life of extreme opulence and extreme wealth because he hadn't shared with her that he is from a generationally wealthy family. He'd never shared that with her. And she finds out literally while they're on the plane. And so she is set up to fail because there are so many different traditions or pieces of etiquette or things or themes that she should know about, especially in the family dynamic that she's not prepared for. And not only that, you have these insiders who are trying to keep the outsiders out. So the mother in the movie, the aunties, all of the grandmothers, there's very much this dynamic of class distinctions and of them feeling like she doesn't understand their culture and really questioning her intentions, like, are you here to marry rich? Or is this really about true love? So the main character in this movie is played by Constance Wu, who is just so adorable. And she's navigating how to. I don't want to say infiltrate, but how to feel comfortable in this world of extreme wealth.

Amber F. (32:58)
Right? And you have these characters. I remember the one girl's name is Astrid. I just think that name's so cute, who was in a terrible, challenging marriage and how to navigate that and all of these girls that are being mean to her because she's not a part of their core group or she doesn't come from the same amount of money. The thing that I find so amazing about this particular film is the set design, the costume design, and just the showcase of the Chinese. And they're in Singapore a lot, too. Mostly the chinese culture here. It's not something we get to see enough. I feel like we have so many cultural references for things like british wealth and aristocracy or the French, for example, or American even. But we don't really get to see behind the curtain of what's going on in the asian cultures as Americans.

Amber F. (33:48)
I mean, Asia has its own robust film scene over there, but for this to be presented, and I loved the books. There's a couple of different books that the guy wrote about this family or this topic, and they're all so compelling. And reading the books was great, but seeing it come to life, this is one movie that I think was done as well as the book. So again, we have the same tropes, but just a different take on a different culture, which I really appreciated. So this is an absolute must watch. Crazy rich Asians. I feel like you need, like a leachy martini with this because it gives a little tropical. It's exotic, it's so fun. It's sweet at times, but it also can be pretty hard pill to swallow for Constance Wu, who is just so good in this movie. Loved this movie.

Amber F. (34:33)
Crazy Rich Asians is the last of my recommendations on the list, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the other great reference points for movies. Maybe these ones aren't my favorite, but they're still really good old money movies. I already mentioned this once with the great Gatsby, and I'm talking about the one with Tobey Maguire and with Leonardo DiCaprio. But I just want to pause and say, anytime somebody brings up Tobey Maguire, I have to mention the movie Molly's game, which is not even anything about old money or anything like that. It's about a woman named Molly Bloom. It's a true story. Molly Bloom wrote this book. She was a champion skier, and then she moved to LA and started working in a poker ring. And the person who this movie is based off of with Molly Bloom in real life is rumored to be Tobey Maguire. That he has, like, a crazy gambling poker addiction, that he's super ruthless.

Amber F. (35:28)
The person that plays him in the movie Molly's game is Michael Sarah. They call him Player X. And so, yeah, all the rumors are that it's Tobey Maguire, that Leonardo DiCaprio was in this whole poker ring. So watch the movie. It's so good. And Jessica Chastain is incredible in it. And then go and look up who they're talking about in the story of Molly's game. So again, the actual old money reference of the, let's call it the runner up category of old money movies is great Gatsby. But Molly's game is also another amazing one. Okay, other great old money reference points. We have Downton Abbey. Obviously, I'm not a huge fan of period pieces, so this one gets a little boring for me, but I know some of the girlies love the Downton Abbey. Another great old money movie is Sabrina. So there are two versions of Sabrina, one of which has Harrison Ford in it. The other one is.

Amber F. (36:20)
And that one's from like the think. And the one I'm referencing is the one from the 50s with Audrey Hepburn who plays Sabrina. And she's the chauffeur's daughter of this very wealthy family. And there's this whole love triangle. That's just a sweet movie. But I loved it so much when I was growing up that when I got my american girl doll, I named her Sabrina after this movie. So I love that one. I think it's a good old money movie. It's a classic. Audrey Hepburn obviously love her. She's not as good as breakfast at Tiffany, but that's not really old money. So anyhow, another one. This is for Justin, one of his favorite movies, trading places. This is with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd and randomly, Jamie Lee Curtis, which I was not expecting when I watched this movie with Justin for the first time. This is an early 80s movie and it's about Eddie Murphy being placed to take over Dan Aykroyd's life by two meddling old men.

Amber F. (37:15)
There are some really funny lines in this. It's just a silly movie. It's wildly inappropriate, like talk about something that did not age well. It's trading places, but it's definitely like a silly movie. It's very campy, but it does a good job of showing you the old men in their Rolls Royce being driven to work into the city, I think in Philadelphia, reading the newspaper. So there's a moment. But the last one on the reference points for old money movies is anything James Bond, especially things like Casino Royale. I love the older ones with Pierce Brosnan. I love the older ones with Sean Connery. I love anything James Bond because even though he's like a spy, he has that ease of wealth. I think that is just one of the key characteristics of all of these movies and what they have in common. And I always feel like the suaveness, the shaken, not stirred. He knows how to act, how to be, which is the essence of old money. So love that so much. And before I let you go, and by the way, this was meant to be like a 20 minutes episode.

Amber F. (38:17)
And here we are at 38 minutes again. But anyway, I wanted to give you some book recommendations. If you're a reader and you want some old money books to read, here are some of my favorites. Number one, I think the best encapsulation of an old money family is Pineapple street by Jenny Jackson. No, I do not remember this off the top of my head. I had to go back into my Kindle. And look, I told you at the beginning, I have amnesia. But this one stuck out to me. Stuck out to me, stuck out to me. I loved this. It was definitely like a gilded age family drama set in regular time. I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but Pineapple street by Jenny Jackson is a must. I also really liked the golden couple by Greer Hendrix and Sarah Picannon. I can link these on social media again, and I'm going to be super honest with you. I rated this book four and a half stars, but I didn't really remember what it was about.

Amber F. (39:10)
And the title is what clued me in to look back at this. And then I remembered it's about a wealthy couple that seemed to have it all. And then there's a therapist that has some unique type know ideas on therapy. So that is a really good one. Next up is good rich people by Eliza Jane Brazier. And this one was another one that stuck with me. This was a really good book. It's about a couple and how they help out people by letting them stay in their guest house. This is also a thriller, as was the last one, so definitely a recommendation if you need a good beach read. I loved this book. And then the last one that I'd recommend is the last Mrs. Parrish, which is by Liv Constantine. I loved this book so, so much. And now that I just said that, I think there's one more that I want to look up, too, that I really enjoyed about money and dynamics and again, insiders and outsiders. But the last Mrs. Parrish, this is the beach read of all beach reads like. Loved this book so much. I actually do remember it and let me go find the other one. Hold on. Yep, I found it.

Amber F. (40:10)
This one. The lion's den. Another incredible beach read. Most of it's set on a yacht, and a lot of it happens in Europe. This one's by Catherine St.

Amber F. (40:19)
John, another incredible insider. Outsider, fabulous wealth, all the things. So here we are, 40 minutes. Again, thank you for hanging on with me. I hope you enjoyed this very long amus boosh.

Amber F. (40:31)
Of all the old money movies that I love, let me know what old money movies you love. Let me know what books I need to read. And if you've ever seen the secret to my success, like you and I wear compadres, you've got to let me know. So thank you again so much for listening to this episode of Old Money podcast. I will talk to you on the next episode. Bye bye.

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