'When does telling the truth ever help somebody?'

Rating: Null/10 (15 February 2017)

I watched this at home on DVD from my public library. My wife had no interest.
It is based on a true story of two young men in Miami in about 2008 taking advantage of rules which allowed almost anyone to surf the government's website for the thousands of needed acquisitions for military supplies to outfit wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then submit a bid. Everything from helmets to automatic rifles to tanks.
Miles Teller is David Packouz, a basically honest young man working in Miami as a message therapist, then trying in vain to sell bed sheets to the multitude of old-folks homes in Florida. When, at a Jewish funeral, he meets up with old boyhood friend Jonah Hill as Efraim Diveroli. Both of these guys were the real people, they did not change the character names.
Diveroli in most respects is the polar opposite of Packhouz. He has no morals, consumes drugs, soft and hard, services of prostitutes, and will cheat anyone at any opportunity to make money. He finds ways to illegally meet contracts, but his downfall was when he attempted to cheat a re-packaging company working for him in Albania. Once the FBI became aware of his illegal operations, repackaging 42-yr-old banned Chinese ammunition for a multi-million contract, the fantasy ended.
The story is good because it shows how the scheming and dishonest can take advantage of cracks in a system like military weapons procurement. One of the producers is Bradley Cooper who also has a small but important role as an arms intermediary. And the real Packhouz has a small role as a very mediocre singer at an old-folks home.