Dumb Money

Just as Adam McKay's The Big Short and J.C. Chandor's Margin Call were both films that tried (and succeeded) in transforming the complex events that led to the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Now, with his new film Dumb Money, Craig Gillespie tries to replicate that success but with a focus on the stock market, specifically the short squeeze involving GameStop and the now iconic character Roaring Kitty.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years or so, the slightly crazy story of GameStop stock should be something you've heard about on the news at some point. It's the story of how a group of small investors went up against the big sharks on Wall Street and actually prevailed, a classic David and Goliath story, moulded in modern sensibilities. It was also inevitable that Hollywood wouldn't get around to turning the events into a film. So the question becomes, is Dumb Money worth your time?

Here we follow Paul Dano as Keith Gill, or Roaring Kitty - the alias that made him a global celebrity. Together with his wife and children, he lives on the hope of one day becoming rich from his thin portfolio of shares. Small savings are also his major hobby outside of work, and through online forums such as Reddit and Twitch, he openly discusses his investments with anyone who will listen. His big bet is GameStop, a stock he believes is significantly undervalued.

On the other side of the coin, we find the sharks on Wall Street and its fund managers betting heavily against GameStop, in anticipation of its inevitable fall. Something that, by all accounts, should have happened; after all, it was the most logical outcome for the company. But as small investors gather their strength and increasingly begin to buy into GameStop, problems begin to pile up on the horizon, and with billions of dollars in imbalance, panic begins to spread among investors.

There is no doubt that Dumb Money is entertaining, and Gillespie's film is a well-rounded, stylish piece of craftsmanship that offers a far more easily digestible version of its real-life counterpart. Dumb Money cleverly distils down many of the more cumbersome concepts that might normally be associated with stocks while also skipping much of the market's complexities. Instead, the focus is more on smaller characters and alongside the main character Keith Gill, we also get to follow a number of other individuals.

These are people who dream, want to break out of their everyday life and dare to hope for something bigger. What they all have in common is that, in one way or another, they are exposed to and take an interest in Roaring Kitty and his investments in GameStop, becoming part of the movement and helping to emotionally anchor the film. On the other side of the coin, we are also offered an insight into the fund managers who bet against GameStop, who, with Seth Rogen in the lead, are played to perfection, even if they happen to be quite distinctive caricatures.

The acting overall is one of the biggest strengths of Dumb Money and despite many scenes and characters having very little connection to each other apart from their common interest in GameStop stock. They are all emotionally engaging little stories in their own right, whether it's the rich, spoilt billionaires whose lives are turned upside down, or the lonely nurse who refuses to sell and dreams of change.

It is surprisingly nuanced and understated, free from sensationalism or embedded messages about the evils of capitalism. Dumb Money will hardly go down in history as a cinematic revelation, but with strong acting and often surprisingly engaging characters, Gillespie offers an entertaining and well balanced film that neither dumbs itself down for the audience nor buries itself in technical terms.