Struggling Billy (Raúl Castillo) convinces his peace-loving wrestling friend Dom (Tony Cavalero) to sink all their money into a cryptocurrency with hopes of a rosy future. Billy wants to be able to buy a house so he can share custody of his daughter, but while he’s bragging of his good fortune to his ex-partner, the value of his bitcoin is plummeting faster than a bird carrying a boulder. The ‘crypto bro’ who started the Tulip coin, Charles Hegel (a brilliant Josh Brener) has apparently died in Kenya, forcing everything to be locked down and leaving Billy owing thousands in loans. Heading to Reddit, he finds a hacker, Eva (Melonie Diaz) who tells him Hegel has faked his death and pocketed millions from his shitcoin scam (something we’ve really seen happen recently). Billy and Dom team up with Eva to find Hegel and make him pay back the money.

Taking a well-timed swipe at how precarious the cryptocurrency world is, co-writer (with John Hibey) and director Cutter Hodierne gives this kidnap/home invasion caper a lighter edge, but doesn’t shy from some grittier moments. It also says a lot about greed and manipulating those in positions of power. Despite being bound a lot of the time, Hegel manages to get into his captors’ heads, attempting to pit them against each other. Hodierne adopts a Moby Dick metaphor, with the ‘little guys’ fighting the ‘big machine’, Billy fighting his instinct to get revenge versus doing the right thing for his family.

Castillo is captivating as he simple-mindedly falls for the crypto scam, genuinely believing his life has changed for the better with the promise of free money. That opening alone should act as a warning for those wanting an easy way out. His descent into thuggish criminality is tragic but handled with humour, with Cavalero’s Dom carrying the deadpan laughs. To compare Hodierne’s film to that of the Coen brothers’ is somewhat lazy, yet the parallels are too strong to deny – and that’s certainly not a bad thing.

COLD WALLET is released on digital platforms on March 3rd.