There's beautiful irony in Ben McKenzie—a celebrity—making a documentary about how celebrities lie to you about cryptocurrency for money. And that irony is exactly what makes Everyone Is Lying to You For Money compelling.
McKenzie, best known for playing Ryan Atwood on The O.C. and Jim Gordon on Gotham, has spent the last few years transforming into an unlikely crypto skeptic. Not just skeptical—actively investigating and exposing the industry's worst grifts. Now he's directing his first documentary, and based on the title alone, it's not pulling punches.
The film promises to expose how influencers, athletes, and yes, actors like himself have been complicit in promoting cryptocurrency schemes that bilked everyday investors out of billions. Tom Brady and FTX. Kim Kardashian and EthereumMax. Matt Damon's "Fortune favors the brave" Crypto.com ad that aged like milk in a hot car.
What makes McKenzie's perspective valuable is that he understands the system from the inside. He knows how celebrity endorsements work, how talent gets pitched on "partnerships," and how easy it is to rationalize promoting something you don't fully understand because the check clears. His self-awareness about Hollywood's role in the crypto bubble gives the project credibility.
The timing is perfect, too. We're in the post-FTX collapse era, where Sam Bankman-Fried is in prison and the crypto industry's promises of decentralization and financial freedom have been exposed as largely a Ponzi scheme with extra steps. The cultural moment is ready for a reckoning.
The documentary's confrontational title—Everyone Is Lying to You For Money—is refreshingly blunt. No hedging, no just the thesis statement right upfront. In an era of mealy-mouthed documentaries that avoid taking stances, this is bracing.
