Money Monster is a taught and tight thinking man’s thriller that packs in a healthy dose of social commentary into its compact running time.

While its title suggests this latest Jodie Foster directed movie would be nothing more than a straight forward bashing on the financial industry, it’s a relief to find that Money Monster is so much more.

Entertaining, thrilling, and with plenty to say about numerous social and cultural issues, that the film manages to stay on track despite the constant threat of eye rolling plot points derailing it at any time, speaks volumes about Foster’s evolution as a director, with this her fourth film behind the lens her best yet.

Money Monster stars George Clooney as Lee Gates, a financial TV show host whose overblown on screen persona makes him a hit, yet off screen his ego is losing him allies save for his producer Patty (Julia Roberts). Both Clooney and Roberts are rather good in their fourth film together, Clooney especially so in his portrayal of a character who smugly thought he knew it all, only to find his worldview challenged and changed.

The real standout here is Jack O’Connell who plays Kyle, a justifiably angry yet morally confused young man who takes Lee hostage while live on air. You see, Kyle lost all of his money based on a “lock it in” tip from Lee to purchase stock from IBIS Clear Capital (a fictional company) only for the stock to inexplicably crash.

O’Connell – who had a breakthrough year in 2014 with performances in Unbroken and Starred Up – is absolutely transcendent here, the English born actor convincing as a Brooklyn native at the end of his rope and a gun in his hand. Clooney and Roberts are the draw, yet many will leave remembering O’Connell.

Foster as an actress starred in some great thrillers (Silence of the Lambs, Panic Room) and its clear she’s picked up some pointers. Money Monster stomps along at a steady pace, the stakes of its drama is always intensely felt, and its characters are worth investing in.

Yet just as important to its success is how Foster approaches its many targets of social commentary. Yes, the corruptive nature of financial institutions is a focal point. But so too is the nature of the media as not only driven by industry, buy by society. Where in the likes of Dog Day Afternoon and Network (both directed by the late, great Sidney Lumet) the public play the role of participant feeding the media beast, in Money Monster the beast has many heads with traditional and new media battling for position.

Money Monster doesn’t necessarily say anything that we’ve heard before. But it does say it in a way that leaves much food for thought, while engrossed in its thrills.