Movie · 2016 · Adventure, Drama, Thriller · 2h · R · English
Curator score: 2.0/10 (105.1K ratings)
Prove 'em all wrong
Overview
Kenny Wells, a modern-day prospector, hustler, and dreamer, is desperate for a lucky break. Left with few options, Wells teams up with an equally luckless geologist to execute a grandiose, last-ditch effort: to find gold deep in the uncharted jungle of Indonesia.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.0/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.13/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Metacritic: 49
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Stephen Gaghan
Production
Living Films, Black Bear Pictures, Boies/Schiller Film Group, Hwy61
Cast
Matthew McConaughey, Bryce Dallas Howard, Edgar Ramírez, Timothy Simons, Michael Landes, Stacy Keach, Rachael Taylor, Bruce Greenwood, Craig T. Nelson, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Macon Blair, Bill Camp, Lora Martinez-Cunningham, Frank Wood, Adam LeFevre, Dylan Kenin, Joshua Harto, Matthew Page, Jackamoe Buzzell
Where to watch
Netflix
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, uneven adventure-drama built around a strong central performance and a genuinely juicy scandal-inspired premise. It’s more entertaining as a sweaty, overconfident character study than as a tightly engineered thriller, but the energy and McConaughey’s commitment keep it afloat.
Best for
Viewers who like flawed but watchable prestige genre movies
Fans of big, shameless lead performances
People interested in corporate fraud and jungle-expedition stories
Audiences who don’t mind loose historical fiction
Skip if
You want a disciplined, fact-based true-crime account
You’re sensitive to pacing problems and uneven editing
You prefer ensemble-driven stories with well-developed supporting characters
You want a serious survival thriller rather than a brash, pulpy drama
Overview
Gold takes a real-world mining scandal and turns it into a brash, sweaty fever dream about greed, delusion, and the American appetite for a big score. The premise is inherently compelling, and Matthew McConaughey throws himself into the role with full physical and emotional commitment, making Kenny Wells feel like a man who can’t stop betting on his own myth.
Worth noting
The problem is that the movie never quite decides whether it wants to be a corporate scam thriller, a jungle adventure, or a tragic character piece. The result is uneven pacing and a story that often feels more interesting in concept than in execution, even if the performances and atmosphere keep it watchable.
Bottom line
Still, there’s something appealing about how shamelessly it leans into excess. If you’re in the mood for a flawed but lively movie about ambition curdling into obsession, Gold has enough personality to make the ride worthwhile.
Top Letterboxd reviews
davidehrlich (2★) · 154 likes
In 1993, a Filipino prospector named Michael de Guzman emerged from the jungles of Busang, Indonesia claiming to have found one of the largest gold deposits on record — he partnered with a Canadian conglomerate called Bre-X Minerals Ltd., and eventually took the fall for the most famous gold mining scandal of the late 20th century.
In 2011, screenwriters Patrick Massett and John Zinman (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”) decided to take the Bre-X story, arbitrarily transplant it to the late… more
CJ Probst (2★) · 99 likes
This isn’t worth writing about but I just felt like writing something.
Okay, literally the only thing to take away from this film is to revel in how much damn fun McConaugheyHEY is having being fat. It must get old being beautiful all of the time so he struts around this movie hands on hips, gut pushed out to an astonishing arrogant comfortability. He looks like a little kid who just put on his new Halloween costume for the first… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3★) · 70 likes
When Matty boy decided to leave the romcoms and become a much serious actor, we get some great work that allowed to sustain what’s been labeled as the "'McConaissance". But between the big batch, we also got a few decent and bad stuff that posed as a thread against this career’s comeback.
This movie very well fits in the “decent” category, not so much for Matthew’s fault but the script and direction. And no shades on Gaghan as he attempts… more
matt lynch (2.5★) · 63 likes
Lead.
bloodbubb1e (3★) · 62 likes
Had the storyline been better edited, GOLD would’ve been a much better watch. Great performances by Matthew McConaughey (boy did he put on weight for the part). A shame that Bryce Dallas Howard’s character was so under-utilised.
2013 · Crime, Drama, Comedy · 3h · R · Curator 7.9/10 (5.7M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, AMC+, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Shares the manic energy of a hustler chasing excess, with a bigger appetite for corruption, charisma, and collapse.