Before I saw Drop I thought it was going to be a full-on horror movie. But when I saw the preview, I realized that even though it was a thriller, it wasn’t a hardcore horror movie, so I decided to go and watch it. I’m glad I did. It was a pleasant surprise.
Drop stars Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar whose characters are on a date while Meghann Fahy’s character is forced to perform certain tasks to prevent her son who is at home from being murdered.
The Production Budget for Drop was $11 million. I haven’t been able to find a reliable figure for the Advertising Budget, but they obviously had to spend some money to advertise it. As of right now, Drop has a Worldwide Gross of $27,801,215. So, they probably made a little money off of the movie, but not much.
Because this movie really talks about the abusive nature of our online culture, I thought that before I get to the review, it would be fun to go through eleven of the biggest fraud scandals in the history of the world.
There’s no better place to start than the man after whom scams have come to be named: Charles Ponzi.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment scheme which involves encouraging growing numbers of investors, where early investors are actually paid by funds contributed by later investors, creating a snowball of self-perpetuating fraud. This type of scheme reflects some of the biggest scams in history.
Charles Ponzi was a notorious Italian immigrant who, between 1918 and 1920, orchestrated an international trading scheme that earned him $250,000 a day.
Ponzi’s story began in Boston, where he discovered the International Reply Coupon (IRC) created by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The coupons allowed senders to pre-purchase postage and include it in their letters.
Recipients in other countries could exchange the IRCs for airmail postage stamps, making international correspondence more convenient.
Ponzi first saw the IRC in a letter from Spain, where it was valued at 30 centavos.
In the U.S., the same IRC could be exchanged for five cents, offering a profitable arbitrage opportunity.
Seeing the potential for huge gains, Ponzi devised a plan to buy IRCs from weaker European economies at low prices and sell them in the U.S. at higher rates.
While it began legitimately, Ponzi’s greed led him to turn his trading plan into a large-scale scam, founding the Securities Exchange Company.
He promised potential investors a 50% return on investments within 90 days, claiming he had an extensive network of agents in Europe bulk-buying coupons for him.
However, he never invested the new funds in IRCs.
Instead, he took some money for himself and used the rest to pay earlier investors.
The scheme ran for a while, but when questions arose about his operations, Ponzi’s deception soon came to light.
An audit showed he had only $61 worth of postal coupons, and he was arrested on August 12, 1920 for mail fraud.
Ponzi served three and a half years in federal prison and nine more on state charges.
Eventually, he was deported and lived in poverty until his death.
Ponzi’s name became so famous that it is now synonymous with a pyramid scheme.
Count Victor Lustig was a master of deception, with his true identity and background remaining a mystery to this day.
The title of ‘Count’ is just one element of his many aliases, as his life of crime saw him operate under 47 different identities.
One of Lustig’s most audacious schemes took place in 1925 in Paris, where he convinced individuals in the scrap metal industry that he was a member of the French government.
To feed the ruse, he commissioned stationery carrying the French government’s seal and took residence at the prestigious Hôtel de Crillon.
Under this pretense, he managed to sell the Eiffel Tower, not once, but twice, claiming it had to be dismantled due to engineering faults, costly repairs, and unspecified political issues.
Lustig was finally apprehended by the Secret Service in New York in 1935.
Not that this held him back, as he escaped from the supposedly inescapable Federal Detention Centre in Manhattan by cutting through the window bars and using a handmade rope to scale the building.
Despite his ability to evade the authorities, Lustig was captured again and imprisoned in Alcatraz, eventually succumbing to pneumonia in 1947.
The Wells Fargo scandal involved the creation of millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts by employees in branches across the United States.
They aimed to meet aggressive sales targets, using unethical tactics like forging signatures and creating fake email addresses.
They also moved customers’ money between accounts without telling them.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau eventually investigated, leading to a $1 billion fine and severe reputational damage for the bank.
More wrongdoing has come to light, including improper loan charges, unlawful repossessions, and denials of mortgage loan modifications.
In 2022, Wells Fargo was ordered to pay another $2bn repayment to customers and a $1.7bn penalty by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Looks like you have to be very careful about which bank you use.
Ever heard the phrase “I have a bridge to sell you”?
It comes from the antics of George C. Parker, who managed to sell ownership of the Brooklyn Bridge 4,160 times.
Parker’s scam involving the Brooklyn Bridge began in the 1880s, when he would target newcomers to New York City and convince them he was the rightful owner of the bridge.
Investors parted with as much as $50,000 to purchase it, planning to profit by installing tolls that charged all who crossed it.
The investors’ hope was short-lived.
The police swiftly shut down any toll booths they attempted to build in the area.
In the end, Parker’s activities became so frequent that Ellis Island officials began warning incoming immigrants that they couldn’t buy public assets.
Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t the only landmark he sold—Parker successfully convinced people to purchase the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, Ulysses S. Grant’s tomb, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Unfortunately for him, detectives eventually apprehended Parker, where he faced charges of larceny, forgery, and impersonating a police officer.
The Theranos scandal is one of Silicon Valley’s most eye-popping frauds.
Founded by Elizabeth Holmes, the company promised to revolutionize blood testing with a device capable of running hundreds of tests from just a drop of blood. Investors poured in over $700 million, boosting Theranos’ valuation to $9 billion at its peak.
However, it all unraveled when it was revealed that the technology didn’t work. Holmes, alongside company president Ramesh Balwani, was charged with criminal fraud in 2018 for misleading investors and doctors. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022.
Wolfgang Beltracchi rose to fame by orchestrating a forgery scheme that saw him sell counterfeit paintings worth over $100 million.
He posed as the heir to his grandparents’ rare art collection.
Along with his wife, he reproduced works by renowned artists such as Max Ernst and Heinrich Campendonk and sold them worldwide.
Eventually, he was charged with forgery and found guilty of selling 14 fake paintings for $45m in total.
The actual number of fakes he sold is believed to be 50 or more.
During his six-year prison sentence, he was placed in an open prison where he could continue painting.
After his release in 2015, he started a new chapter, selling authentic pieces under his own name.
But he wasn’t the only scammer to sell fake art.
In 1911, an Argentinian con man named Eduardo de Valfierno allegedly paid a Louvre employee to steal the world’s most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Yet he had no interest in the real painting. He only needed the world to know it was missing so he could sell his forged copies to underground collectors, leaving the employee to keep the painting.
Valfierno had already commissioned the French art restorer and forger Yves Chaudron to create six replicas before the theft, knowing it would be harder to smuggle copies after the original disappeared.
He shipped the duplicates worldwide in preparation for lucrative sales.
Eventually, the Louvre employee was caught attempting to sell the stolen Mona Lisa.
It was returned to its rightful place in 1913.
Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, often called the ‘diesel dupe,’ exposed a major deception in 2015. The company admitted to installing software in about 11 million diesel cars worldwide, designed to cheat emissions tests. In the U.S. alone, this affected around 500,000 vehicles, making it one of the largest scandals in automotive history.
This scam reached countries like Germany, the UK, and Italy, sparking global outrage and investigations. VW’s actions led to recalls of millions of cars and severely damaged its reputation. Not to mention, the financial hit was massive, with the company setting aside €6.7 billion to cover costs, while investors saw shares drop by nearly a third.
In June 2000, millionaire businessman Harry Gordon faked his own death, claiming he was fleeing Ukrainian gangsters.
Many believe he did it for the life insurance payout.
After a boating accident that “proved” he drowned, Gordon left behind his wife and daughter to begin a new life.
Over the next few years, he lived in 5 different countries under the name Rob Motzel.
While in Auckland, Gordon found a new wife who didn’t know his past until they ran into his brother, who was stunned to see him alive.
Gordon was later arrested while travelling to Sydney on a fake passport.
He pleaded guilty and received a 15-month prison sentence for conspiring to obtain $3.5 million in life insurance payouts, false representation, and possessing falsified travel documents.
Afterwards, he wrote an autobiography called ‘How I Faked My Own Death and Did Not Get Away with It.’
The United Nations estimates that up to $800 billion—$2 trillion is laundered annually. That figure puts the estimated $380 billion Wachovia money laundering case into perspective. It was, and remains, the largest money laundering case in history.
Discovery of this eye-watering figure actually traces back to the seizure of a Mexican drug cartel shipment in 2006. Mexican soldiers captured a plane carrying a $100 million haul of cocaine. But it was the paper trail of the vehicle itself which unraveled this multibillion-dollar money laundering chain.
Tracing the ownership of the plane revealed a network of money laundering transactions stretching over years through Wachovia accounts. Analysis by the authorities indicated that $378.4 billion of funds—equivalent to one-third of the Mexican GDP—had been transferred through Wachovia accounts without proper anti-money laundering due diligence applied.
A court case eventually led to Wachovia paying $100 million in forfeiture to the US Government, and an accompanying $50 million fine for failing to monitor cash transfers. The bank was later acquired by Wells Fargo during the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Once again proving that you really have to choose your bank wisely.
Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is arguably regarded as the biggest scam in US history.
Madoff, a trusted Wall Street figure, lured thousands of investors by promising consistently high returns. Classic. However, instead of generating real profits, he used new investors’ money to pay off early investors. The scheme unraveled in 2008 when Madoff faced $7 billion in withdrawal requests he couldn’t fulfill, leading to his arrest.
The scam, which lasted nearly two decades, caused losses exceeding $50 billion. His once-legitimate business (Madoff Investment Securities LLC ) masked this fraud, devastating not just wealthy investors but also retirees and everyday people.
The Enron scandal, one of the most infamous corporate frauds in history, rocked the business world in 2001. Once a powerhouse in the energy trading sector, Enron’s value plummeted after it was revealed that the company had used fraudulent accounting practices, inflating revenues and profits.
At its peak, Enron boasted a market value of $68 billion! However, by late 2001, the company’s stock price had fallen from a high of $90.75 to less than $1 per share.
The key to Enron’s fraudulent success was its use of mark-to-market (MTM) accounting. Under this method, future contracts were booked as immediate profits, even if the revenue hadn’t materialized. This allowed Enron to project false profitability misleading investors.
Enron also hid debt and losses through complicated deals with special purpose entities (SPEs) like “Raptors,” created by CFO Andrew Fastow. These entities helped mask the company’s financial troubles, giving a false impression of strength.
When the truth came out, Enron faced $23 billion in liabilities, leading to its bankruptcy filing in December 2001, and wiping out 4,000 jobs.
The cryptocurrency trading platform FTX is the latest high-profile financial fraud case laid bare by American regulators. The Nassau, Bahamas-based company was led by Sam Bankman-Fried, who now resides in a U.S. prison after being found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried launched FTX in May 2019 and was also the driving force behind hedge fund Alameda Research, which he co-founded with business partner Gary Wang. Flush with billions in private financing, Bankman-Fried and other FTX senior executives were accused of using the money to buy plush beach homes in the Caribbean, invest in new ventures, and send money to local and national political causes.
In late 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried defrauded his companies’ investors by steering money from FTX into Alameda Research between 2019 and 2022. Both FTX and Alameda went bankrupt, and Bankman-Fried was arrested on fraud charges in the Bahamas.
In March 2024, U.S. federal court judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison, citing the severity of the FTX founder’s actions. “At the end of the day, the criminal justice system thrives only if it’s seen as fair,” Kaplan noted in sentencing Bankman-Fried. “People need to feel it is fair, or we’re back to trial by combat. The punishment must fit the seriousness of the crime. And this was a serious crime.”
FTX top advisor and star witness Caroline Ellison received a two-year prison sentence, and a judge ruled that executive Wang would serve no prison time after cooperating with prosecutors.
In fall 2024, a bankruptcy judge gave the nod to FTX’s reorganization plan, with an estimate of up to $16.5 billion in assets to be repaid. That means that 98% of FTX’s customers will receive around 118% of their claim or more. That may be cold comfort, though, for investors who missed out on the surge in crypto prices in recent years.
What have we learned from all these examples of fraud?
First, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Second, there’s an unbelievable number of scammers out there.
And third, if someone’s selling you the Eiffel Tower, don’t buy it.
Now it’s time to get to the review.
In the lead role of Violet Gates, Meghann Fahy had a tough role. Violet has to be on a date all while knowing a masked man with a gun is in her home and threatening the safety of her son and her sister.
Meghann had to play a character who was incredibly afraid, yet who had to act like there was nothing wrong and still had to entertain her date and keep him around, all while having to obey every command, or risk her son and sister being killed.
Meghann did a terrific job at playing this incredibly complex role. Few people have ever been in a scenario anywhere close to that, so she really had to imagine what that would feel and look like and make it real for the audience.
It felt real all the way through.
She only missed a few small things, but her brilliance easily made up for it.
Interesting Note:
In 2008, when she was 18 years old, Fahy ditched college plans after she was cast as an understudy in the musical Next to Normal. Within two years, the show had transferred to Broadway, where she became a member of the principal cast. She filmed the soap opera One Life to Live by day, hit the stage at night, and was absolutely in love with New York City. “The rhythm of it makes sense to me,” she says. “The literal walking from place to place and putting my headphones in—it’s how I process things.”
After Next to Normal closed in 2011, Fahy worked as a nanny and a hostess at the downtown café the Grey Dog while she auditioned incessantly. She landed guest spots on procedurals like Law & Order: SVU and Blue Bloods, but when she auditioned for musicals, she found herself in rooms with actresses who were trained at conservatories. The experience chipped away at her confidence. “That s*** is so hard and can be so . . . embarrassing,” she says, shuddering.
For years, Fahy suffered from cystic acne, really painful periods, and “all kinds of symptoms,” and was told by doctors that nothing was wrong. “I tried everything, every diet. I would wake up before I went to set on The Bold Type at 4:00 a.m. and juice and all these things, and nothing helped. I was so insecure about it.”
A few years ago, she visited a celebrity gynecologist in Los Angeles. “She took one look at me and she was like, ‘Oh, you have polycystic ovary syndrome,’” a hormonal disorder that studies say affects 5 to 10 percent of women, though many experts suggest the rates are much higher since so many patients are never diagnosed. Fahy was relieved to put a name to what was going on inside her body, but it also made her furious that so many doctors had disregarded her ailments. “You don’t even realize you’re being gaslit until someone validates your pain.”
There are countless reasons a movie star might not want to divulge the details of their private health concerns with a stranger. But Fahy, mellow and amiable, thinks it’s an “important conversation” to have. As a result of the PCOS diagnosis, she lost one ovary and decided to freeze her eggs last February. “There’s so much pressure on women even in their 20s to freeze their eggs. Part of you is like . . . this is such an expensive, laborious, and emotionally and physically taxing insurance policy. And yet, the flip side of the coin is like, Wouldn’t I go through this just so that I could have the life that I want?” she says, easygoing yet resolute. “I’ve always imagined that I would have a family, but I’m also somebody who knows that if I didn’t, I would have a full life.”
She credits her therapist with helping her work through . . . being in such a public-facing industry where rejection is part of the grind and your personal life is on blast. “Everything before White Lotus, I felt on the outside of the craziness,” she says. “When I’ve had a tiny taste of being on the inside of the craziness, I’m learning this is a ladder, and you’re always climbing. There is always the next rung, and a new pile of problems when you get there.” Like how to simply be among the glitz and glam. “I never feel like I belong in those spaces,” she says. “The more people I talk to, the more they say, ‘I feel that way, too.’ But anxiety does that, right? It makes you feel alone when really none of us are.”
Meghann Fahy’s role in this movie was one of the most challenging roles you’ll ever see and she did a terrific job.
Meghann Fahy Performance Grade:
8.6 A- Very Good
Brandon Sklenar played the role of Henry Campbell, personal photographer of the Mayor of Chicago.
This was a tough role to play because he’s on a first date with a cute woman that he’s been connecting with online for the past month. He knows there’s no way she would be on the date with him if she wasn’t interested at least a little bit. But almost the entire time, she is distracted and on her phone. He’s trying to be considerate as she keeps telling him her son is having problems.
Basically, his character is stuck in this limbo of “Is she interested in me or not?”
Brandon Sklenar did a good job of playing a character who was confused yet trying to push forward through that confusion to find a genuine connection with the woman with whom he was on a date.
It came across as very real.
Interesting Note:
At 19, Sklenar threw his belongings into garbage bags and drove cross-country to pursue a career in Hollywood, eventually landing small roles on TV series (New Girl) and in indie films (Mapplethorpe).
He got his big break with 1923, the hit Yellowstone prequel which premiered on Paramount+ in late 2022. Sklenar shot to fame as Spencer Dutton, a dashing World War I veteran and game hunter. The show, he says, “changed my life.”
“I’ve been kind of just pounding away for the last 16 years,” he adds. “It’s like the universe throwing you a bone and I really appreciate that.”
And though he’s grateful for everything that’s happening, Sklenar isn’t one to get “excitable,” he says, “Even when I was a kid on Christmas, I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s Christmas.’”
As a boy, Sklenar wasn’t hoping for fame—he found that acting helped him deal with his stutter as well as his depression.
“My happiest moments were when I was playing and I got to disappear into these things,” says Sklenar, who was raised in a “blue collar” family by dad Bruce Feakins and mom Francine, a former hairdresser.
After high school, he decided to follow his dream and pursue acting. “It was like a burning desire and there was nothing else that I could do. I had to do it. And yeah, the drive was tremendous to do that,” he says.
After playing an important role in It Ends With Us and now in this movie, it’s clear Brandon Sklenar’s career is really starting to take off. If he continues to give performances like he did in this movie, we’ll see him in many more movies to come.
Brandon Sklenar Performance Grade:
8.8 A- Very Good
Violett Beane played the role of Jen Gates, Violet Gates’ sister who stayed at home to babysit her son while she went on a date.
There’s one scene between the two sisters early on where Violett Beane is doing a great job of telling her sister that what she’s wearing is not good enough to go on a date, then gives her a pep talk and some advice. Violett did a good job of bringing some comedy to the movie while being a sounding board to help the audience understand Violet Gates’ mental outlook at that point in time.
I hope we get to see Violett Beane in more movies with an expanded role because she definitely brought some fun to this movie.
Violett Beane Performance Grade:
8.2 B+ Very Good
I absolutely have to talk about Jeffery Self’s performance in this movie. He played the waiter Matt who was doing his first shift at the ritzy restaurant.
Jeffery Self’s character was the comedic relief throughout the movie. His character was upbeat, fun, funny, and talkative which gave a terrific contrast to the very heavy situation Violet Gates was in.
Jeffery Self absolutely nailed this performance and I’m sure we’ll see him in many more movies to come. This was the kind of performance that can propel someone into a fantastic Hollywood career and I hope it happens for him.
Jeffery Self Performance Grade:
9.3 A Excellent
All of the acting throughout the entire movie was very good. Drop doesn’t have a very big cast, but the actors and actresses who performed in this movie did a terrific job of making the movie feel real and very intense.
Overall Acting Grade:
8.7 A- Very Good
I absolutely loved how they started out this movie with an unbelievably intense scene. That scene played directly into Violet Gates’ character and was referenced later on in the movie.
I love intense movies, and once Violet Gates’ starts getting the first few Digi Drops to her phone, the movie is incredibly intense and it never lets up.
There were a few twists and turns that you didn’t expect and the writers kept ratcheting up the objective of the main character while ratcheting up the intensity.
It was a terrific plot and I’m a little jealous I didn’t think of it myself.
The only minor problem with the plot is that most of the movie was inside the restaurant. They made it work for this movie, but that’s not always the best way to go.
Plot Grade:
8.2 B+ Very Good
There were no great dialogue scenes in this movie, although there was some decent dialogue throughout.
There was an opportunity to have a great dialogue scene between Violet and her sister early on that even though they gave it a little humor, it could’ve been a much better dialogue scene. The writers also could have given Violet and Henry a terrific dialogue scene right when they first meet and sit down, but they missed that opportunity too.
The writers sprinkled comedy in effectively throughout the movie and that allowed it to be a bit brighter despite the heavy tone.
Near the end of the movie there was some good dialogue as the intensity really heated up.
Overall, the dialogue in this movie isn’t going to blow anyone away.
Dialogue Grade:
5.5 C+ Slightly Above Average
Overall, the plot was the driving force of the movie and the dialogue could’ve been better. The fact that the movie kept you on your toes and kept you guessing shows just how strong the plot was.
Overall Writing Grade:
6.5 B- Above Average
There was a lot of terrific music in this movie that really made the movie feel much more intense. The Music Composer, Bear McCreary, did a terrific job of adding to the story through the music.
The only problem I noticed about the music is there were several times throughout the movie where there was no music and it didn’t seem like there was any logical reason why there was no music during those times. If the entire movie has music except for one scene, then the Director is actually highlighting that scene as being spectacularly important. So, the fact that there were multiple times throughout the movie when there was no music and those scenes were not the most important scenes of the movie left me a bit puzzled.
But overall, the music was excellent and it has now put Bear McCreary on my radar. I’m looking forward to listening to what he does next.
Music Grade:
8.7 A- Very Good
The cinematography in this movie was very creative and really added to the story.
At the beginning of the movie, when things seem normal for Violet, they used traditional coverage, but even then, they found a way to be creative with it. I really liked the shot when Violet first walks into the main part of the restaurant. The camera walks down the hall then opens up to the entire room and gives you a good feel for the space. I also enjoyed the shot of when Henry and Violet first walk to their table. The camera moved around the other side of the bar area, once again, giving you a good feel for the space then met back up with them as they arrived at their table.
Once Violet starts to learn that her son is in trouble, the Director switched to canted shots (shots at an angle) that helped convey Violet’s feelings that her world was crumbling.
One really cool shot I liked was when Violet was in the bathroom stall and they showed a bunch of shots from the security cameras at her home all around her. It showed you exactly what she was looking at on her phone and was a very creative shot that really added to the intensity of the story while helping to put the audience in Violet’s shoes.
There were a lot of really interesting and creative shots in this movie that really added to the feel and tone of the movie. The shots were well planned and prepared beforehand and were masterfully executed. It’s difficult to find much better or more creative cinematography while still enhancing the storytelling.
Cinematography Grade:
9.4 A Excellent
Christopher Landon did a terrific job of executing terrific cinematography that added to the story. He also did a wonderful job of getting good acting from the cast.
This movie showed just how good of a Director Christopher Landon is and that he has a chance to have a bright future in Hollywood.
Director Grade:
8.9 A- Very Good
There are some cuss words in this movie, including one F word. There are no sex scenes.
Overall, Drop was a very intense and enjoyable movie to watch. The acting was terrific, the cinematography and music were top notch, and the plot was strong. The only thing that really could have been better was the dialogue. Other than that, they made a good movie.
Drop Overall Grade:
7.0 B Good
Drop is an intense movie that most people will enjoy.
Adrian Harris is a writer, author, and business owner. He hopes to soon open his own movie studio and become a movie producer, director, and actor. Read Adrian’s Bio.
Adrian Harris is a writer, author, and business owner. He hopes to soon open his own movie studio and become a movie producer, director, and actor. Read Adrian’s Bio.
*Comedy Short Story
Adrian parked the car in the driveway as he and his beautiful wife, Hannah, arrived at home. As they got out of the car, Hannah looked at the blooming flowers in their garden then at their two-story house, “It’s good to be home.”
*Romantic Comedy/Action Short Story
Veronica, a tall and beautiful high-school senior, curled her long blonde hair as her two best friends, Stephanie and Jennifer put on makeup in her second-story bedroom in Newark, New Jersey while getting ready for Prom.
Wicked is the Prequal to the 1939 The Wizard of Oz. Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Just like The Wizard of Oz, Wicked is a musical. You should know that this movie is Part 1 and as of right now, Wicked: Part 2 is expected to come out November 21, 2025.
