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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

StartUp

Bitcoin was already seven years old and Elizabeth Holmes at the start of her downward spiral when StartUp, a suspenseful crime thriller about crypto-currency wars, started streaming in 2016. The series didn’t get the attention it deserved, probably because it was available only on something called Crackle. All three seasons are now on Netflix and well worth a look. StartUp cleverly meshes the world of high tech with Miami crime and corruption. The casting helps: Martin Freeman (Sherlock, Fargo) plays a bent F.B.I. agent trailing a trio of entrepreneurs who have good intentions and louche track records. Adam Brody, all grown up since The O.C. but still boyish, plays Nick, a preppy entrepreneur who syphons the ill-gotten gains of his embezzler father to seed Gencoin, a promising crypto-currency created by Izzy Morales (Otmara Marrero), a Cuban-American Stanford dropout. The two of them fall in—hesitantly—with Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi), a Haitian gang member who also spots Gencoin’s potential and wants to invest. All three are hoping that a Gencoin success will help them wriggle out of serious troubles at home, but the obstacles they encounter are darker and more daunting than anything they’ve sidestepped before. StartUp is tech-generation film noir set in blindingly bright South Florida sunshine. —Alessandra Stanley

Edi Gathegi in “StartUp.” Photo: Netflix.