The Banker

Set in the 1960s, The Banker follows two Black entrepreneurs who devise an unusual plan to work around the racial barriers that keep African Americans out of fair housing and business ownership. Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris recruit a white man, Matt Steiner, to pose as the public face of their dealings while they run the operation from behind the scenes. Their scheme succeeds well enough to draw attention from authorities, putting the business and the men behind it at risk.

George Nolfi directed and co-wrote the film, his third feature after The Adjustment Bureau and Birth of the Dragon, from a screenplay he wrote with Niceole R. Levy and David Lewis Smith. Anthony Mackie plays Garrett and also produced alongside Nolfi and Nnamdi Asomugha; Samuel L. Jackson plays Morris, Nicholas Hoult plays Steiner, and Nia Long plays Bernard's wife, Eunice. The cast and crew number in the dozens, and the film runs two hours.

Released in March 2020, the drama carries a budget of 11 million dollars and took in about 2 million worldwide. Audiences have rated it well, with a 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb across roughly 42,000 votes and a 7.6 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller pool of voters. A critics' score of 6.8 out of 10 from 79 reviews sits just below those viewer figures.