Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgård play cousins with money on their minds in the financial thriller The Hummingbird Project. Written and directed by Kim Nguyen, the film is an intoxicating look at high stakes’ corporate greed where the line between billionaire or broke is decided in one millisecond. The Hummingbird Project feels like a mix between the unnerving scheming of American Animals and the mile-a-minute repugnance of The Wolf of Wall Street… apparently, when it comes to money, we’re all animals.

Setting the plan into motion

Vincent (Eisenberg) and Anton Zaleski (Skarsgård) are both top-level traders in NYC who have sights set far beyond their Wall Street cubicles. Vinny serves as the fast-talking mouthpiece while Anton is the more reserved, balding computer scientist. Together, they have the power to create big things, which is exactly what they’ve set out to do- disrupt the stock market. Enlisting help from their friend Mark (Michael Mando), the cousins have proposed a way to create an underground tunnel that runs a fiber-optic cable line from Kansas to New Jersey- approximately 1,000 miles long and 4 inches wide. The purpose of a project so large in scale and scope is fairly simple, to get stock market quotes a mere millisecond faster than other companies, including the company they abruptly left in order to pursue this project. All of this equates to stock market profits… and lots of it.

Competition arrives, and she’s not happy

Everyone involved with the tunnel project is ecstatic, including the cousins’ financial backer (Frank Schorpion). Expectations are high but Vinny’s constant assurances and problem-solving skills put everyone’s minds at ease. Plus, there is no visible threat or competitor to worry about…until there becomes one. Once the cousins’ former boss, a tyrannical and vengeful Eva Torres (Salma Hayek), gets word of this project that threatens to cost her millions, she begins to put into motion a plan of her own that sets out to destroy Vinny and Anton. It becomes a true David vs Goliath situation with stakes that reach higher than any amount of money can buy.

Eisenberg and Skarsgård play satirical, yet realistically vulnerable, characters

The Hummingbird Project offers Eisenberg and Skarsgård dimensional and meaty characters that perfectly bounce off each other like a game of Pong. Better known for his roles as a heartthrob or “the other man,” Skarsgård hides his usual charm behind a bald cap, wire-rimmed rectangular glasses, and an old robe as Anton. Unable to rely on his physical appearance alone, Skarsgård puts more emphasis on developing and expressing his emotions through the unspoken language of subtlety, like a furrowed brown or sly smile. Eisenberg sticks to his more traditional character style of fast-paced neuroticism, but a particularly emotional massage parlor scene paints him in a heartbreakingly vulnerable light. Without saying a word or line of dialogue, he unloads years worth of pent up stress, anger and sadness in a single moment. It is by far the most arresting and memorable shot in the entire film.

The hummingbird’s relevance explained

16 milliseconds is equivalent to a single flap of a hummingbird’s wing, and that is also the amount of time it takes to determine life or death in the un-relentless market economy. The goal is a mere millisecond, but throughout the turbulent journey of this tunnel project, Vinny learns that you can only push the edge so far until you reach the end, and by then it might be too late.

The Hummingbird Project is rated R for language throughout. 111 minutes. In theaters this Friday, including Arclight Hollywood.