Dumb Money review

DUMB MONEY: 

FILM ABOUT GAMESTOP STOCK IS ANYTHING BUT DUMB! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND STAGE 6 FILMS

Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Seth Rogen in Dumb Money

 

            A financial analyst and freelance YouTuber changes the game (literally) in Dumb Money, the latest film from Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, I, Tonya, Cruella) based on the 2021 GameStop short squeeze. The film is riding on the success of other movies about financial disasters such as Wall Street, Margin Call, and The Big Short and there will be many comparisons to those films amongst moviegoers. 

            I didn’t really follow the GameStop short squeeze when it was happening though I eventually figured it out through word of mouth online and when the 2022 documentary film, GameStop: Rise of the Players was released chronicling the events…I still have not seen it BTW. I was, however, very much aware of GameStop’s inevitable plummet and various controversies surrounding that company during the end of their run so I at least have a basic idea of what went down with GameStop as a company. 

            Now that the very first feature film based on the events is finally here, I can say that Dumb Money is…good. I don’t think it’s one of the absolute best films based on a real-life financial crisis, but I found myself really enjoying it for the most part. 

            The film is set during the COVID-19 pandemic and follows Keith Gill (Paul Dano-Prisoners, The Batman, The Fabelmans), a regular guy working as a financial analyst in Brockton, Massachusetts and freelance YouTuber under the name, Roaring Kitty struggling to provide for his family and his content is constantly mocked by his brother Kevin (Pete Davidson-The King of Staten Island, The Suicide Squad, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts). But when he notices that the stock of the once-successful video game store, GameStop is falling he decides to put his life savings into buying stock in it and regularly livestream updates with his viewers. 

            Suddenly, his social posts start blowing up as well as his life and the lives of everyone following him as the stock tip soon becomes a movement as everyone starts getting rich…until the billionaires start fighting back. 

            The film also stars Shailene Woodley (The Spectacular Now, The Divergent Series, The Fault in Our Stars) as Keith’s wife Caroline, Seth Rogen (Superbad, 50/50, This is the End) as Melvin Capital Management founder Gabe Plotkin, Vincent D’Onofrio (Men in Black, Jurassic World, Marvel’s Daredevil) as Steve Cohen, America Ferrera (Ugly Betty, How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, Barbie) as Jennifer Campbell, Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, Fargo, Jump Street) as Kenneth C. Griffin, Anthony Ramos (A Star is Born (2018), In the Heights, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) as GameStop employee Marcos, Sebastian Stan (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Logan Lucky, I, Tonya) as Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, A Cure for Wellness) as Marcos’ boss Brad, Myha’la Herrold (Industry, Bodies Bodies Bodies) and Talia Ryder (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, West Side Story (2021), Do Revenge) as college students Riri and Harmony, Rushi Kota (Grey’s Anatomy, The Divorce Party, Never Have I Ever) as Baiju Bhatt, Clancy Brown (DC Animated Universe, SpongeBob Squarepants, John Wick: Chapter 4) as Keith’s father Steven, Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Where’d You Go, Bernadette) as Keith’s mother Elaine, Larry Owens (Fairfax, Search Party, Harley Quinn) as Chris, Olivia Thirlby (Being Flynn, Dredd, Oppenheimer) as Gabe’s wife Yaara, and Deniz Akdeniz (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Once Upon a Time, You Hurt My Feelings) as Keith’s financial colleague Briggsy. 

            Overall, Dumb Money doesn’t quite have the same impact as something like The Big Short, but it’s still a well-crafted and fascinating look at one of the wildest moments in recent years. I personally thought The Big Short had a much stronger narrative and was better paced than this and while I was entertained throughout, at times it gets a little unfocused. 

            The film sets up Paul Dano’s Keith as the main character which makes sense since he plays the largest part in the story, but then it’ll spend too much time setting up other characters and focus a lot on them to the point where the narrative feels busy. This movie is also under 2 hours with a 1 hour and 44-minute runtime so perhaps if the film was longer or if it narrowed down the things to focus on, I think it would have been much stronger and better paced. 

            With that said, the movie did a decent job at filling me in on the details of what went down during the GameStop short squeeze and how it affected the country. The way the film is written honestly reminded me a lot of Aaron Sorkin’s writing and if you’ve seen films like The Social Network, Moneyball, and Molly’s Game you probably know what I’m talking about, there’s a lot of talk about statistics and analyzing but not to the point where it loses your attention or that it’s hard to follow. 

            What really makes the film work is the performances, Paul Dano is a very charismatic lead actor, and you are invested in his character’s life, family struggles, etc. He brings this likable energy to this real-life person, and you want to see him succeed. 

            Pete Davidson has some fun moments as Keith’s vulgar brother, and I especially enjoyed his interactions with Dano. Davidson is a hit-or-miss comedic actor, but this is one of his performances that genuinely works. 

            Other memorable performances include Shailene Woodley, America Ferrera, Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Offerman who all have their moments to shine in the film. While not every cast member is heavily focused on, they use their screen-time very effectively. 

            Dumb Money is ironically a smart and fascinating tale about one of the craziest moments in recent American history that’s elevated by the performances by the cast, clever dialogue, and a riveting story. It isn’t perfect and there are aspects that could have been improved, but for what I got I was entertained throughout by this wild “Game”.