by In the 1985 film, Brewster’s Millions, Richard Pryor plays a minor-league ballplayer who’s offered a challenge of spending $30 million in 30 days to inherit a $300 million windfall from a deceased relative.
The stakes in Chris Gets Money aren’t quite that high. Fusion’s new comedy documentary takes Austin-based stand-up Chris Cubas, who has to work as a bouncer to help make ends meet, and gives him $30,000 to spend in 30 days. It’s all in an effort to explore income inequality — the chasm between rich and poor, between the haves and have-nots — that has become a central problem in America. And do so in a funny way.
“The point I wanted to make with this film is that income inequality isn’t an abstract idea — it is a real, tangible problem with real-world implications for regular Americans,” Cubas said. “I’ve never had money in any real way. My father worked for the post office, my mother was a stay-at-home mom and we got by, but it was never easy. And now people might think ‘Oh he’s broke because he decided to try and being a comedian,’ but the fact is I work more than 40 hours a week and still barely make ends meet. I think it’s important for people to realize that it’s not just homeless people or jobless people that this is a problem for.”
Chris Gets Money premieres at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific on Fusion.
