It’s not often that we cover comedies here at Nightmare on Film Street, but when we do they are comedies where laughter is the only defense you have against a full-blown panic attack. And as a Canadian citizen, laughing through full-blown panic attacks is about all I know right now (see: any news story from any news outlet covering US/CAN politics). Indie comedy $Positions, which recently celebrated its World Premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, is truly one of the most stressful movies I’ve watched since Uncut Gems. What starts out as a cringy crypto blunder takes a nosedive straight into the danger zone as a naive investor find himself in a blender of bankruptcy, bookies, dead bodies, and criminally insane drug addicts.Â
Written and directed by Brandon Daley, $Positions stars Michael Kunicki as Mike, a struggling crypto investor down on his luck, in over his head, and way out of his depth. His life in indistinguishable from a gambling addict’s, mainlining a rollercoaster of extreme highs and unbelievable lows with every unpredictable turn of the digital market. Like Walter White in Breaking Bad, Mike is a cancer at the center of every close relationship he has. His addiction to the promise of a crypto currency windfall comes at the expense of literally everything in his life. He loses his job, his house, his girlfriend, his family, and his conscience all because he thinks he’s about to win the meme coin lottery.Â
“I was less than 5 minutes in this dang movie before I could feel my blood pressure rising.”
Watching Mike make one disastrous decision after another is so incredibly stressful. He’s too lost in the hype to recognize his insane irrationality. I was less than 5 minutes in this dang movie before I could feel my blood pressure rising, worried sick for this fiction fool. And he never learns from his mistakes! I think I spent more time yelling at my screen while watching $Positions than I did while white knuckling the 4 Nations Hockey tournament last month. Michael Kunicki takes what should be an easy-to-hate character and gives him so much heart and sympathy. Your blood boils seeing him drag the world down with him, but mostly you look on like you’re a frustrated father, watching your gullible but sweet-hearted boy make the worst decisions possible.
$Positions is a full course meal of frustrated anxiety, seasoned with silly small-town nonsense. It’s 50% laugh-out loud, 50% hyperventilate into a paper bag. It absolutely nails the desperate living conditions that can force even the sweetest people into the sketchiest situations. Thematically, it’s a movie straight out of the drug addict playbook and seemingly tailor made for people who wish the Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems, Good Time) were as focused on humor as they are on heartache. And honestly, a scarily accurate picture of what crypto trading looks like for so many people. When I was 13, my dad encouraged me to watch Requiem For A Dream because he wanted to scare me out of trying hard drugs. Crypto is the new gateway drug for gambling addicts, and $Positions is the scared-straight class for anyone about to dump their life savings into a flashy scam or a cold wallet.Â
“$Positions is a full course meal of frustrated anxiety, seasoned with silly small-town nonsense.”
Brandon Daley’s $Positions celebrated its World Premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival and share your own Crypto Horror Stories with us in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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