Dumb Money is the ultimate David vs. Goliath tale, based on the insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (yes, the mall videogame store) into the world’s hottest company. In the middle of everything is regular guy Keith Gill (Paul Dano), who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock and posting about it. When his social posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich – until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.
What We Thought:
Overall I liked the story and most of the performances in Dumb Money. I have issues with things in the film and I’ll go over them accordingly. I think others will get more out of it than me because the issues I have (especially one) is more generational than anything else.
As for the positives, Paul Dano is great in the lead role. As a small time analyst in Brockton, MA, his character started the wave that would soon be GameStop. If you aren’t familiar with the story, internet nerds driven by Dano’s character drove the stock price of GameStop from around $3 to over $300 at its peak. It crippled hedge fund companies who had shorted it becoming a poor vs. rich fight that ended up in litigation through the government. Dano is great as he is in everything. He doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves as an actor, but he’s every bit the leading man here. You may not understand what he’s doing if you aren’t familiar with stocks and the stock market, but it’s still a classic underdog story you root for.
It’s that story that I liked the most about the movie. I work in film in different ways, but my background is actually business. I was well aware of the GameStop story when it was happening and followed along like others. Reddit and video posts helped push GameStop, AMC and other MemeStocks that bankrupted many companies and let small time investors (known as dumb money to big time players) put a few dollars in their pockets. The film does a solid job showing you the events of that time.
The events of that time took place in 2020 and 2021. Not only does the pandemic come into play, but other things in that time period do too. Unfortunately for me that makes the movie way too “now”. I’m well beyond the age of most of these characters and I didn’t like parts of the film because of it. It’s way too busy at times with memes, GIFs, TikToks and everything else filling the screen. I don’t like that stuff in real life, I certainly don’t want that in a movie.
Plus the movie has way too many characters. Dano, his wife, his brother and parents should be the core group along with Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Sebastian Stan and the other wealthy elite folk. Unfortunately there are side characters I simply didn’t care about or even want in the film. There’s one character who literally works at a GameStop, two college girls and a nurse. I understand all these characters are to show the different people who participated in the GameStop rally, but you could get rid of most of them and have the same movie.
Then there is the biggest issue, the music. It might have the worst soundtrack in cinematic history. It opens with WAP and I instantly knew it wasn’t for me. I felt bad for anyone over 50 in the crowd having to hear it. Because the film takes place in 2020 and 2021 it has all the music from then that I simply don’t like. A movie like this should have had a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross ala The Social Network, but instead gets more f-bombs or worse blasted in your ears.
Dumb Money is too timely for me. It’s too cluttered and at times feels like an onslaught on your senses. It’s a shame because the story is fantastic, Dano is great and Rogen, Offerman, Stan, Vincent D’Onofrio, and others are all good. Pete Davidson seems to be playing himself and Shailene Woodley doesn’t get to be more than just a housewife/new mom, but the acting isn’t an issue for the film. If you don’t mind the music and don’t mind your eyes having to scan the screen to see everything going on you’ll probably like it more than me. If it was toned down it could have been the new The Social Network which it really wants to be, but feels more like Pump Up the Volume, but with much, much worse music.
Written by: Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo
Based on the book “The Antisocial Network” by: Ben Mezrich
Produced by: Aaron Ryder, Teddy Schwarzman, Craig Gillespie
Executive Producers: Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Andrew Swett, Johnny Holland, Ben Mezrich, Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Kevin Ulrich
Cast: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, and Seth Rogen
This film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for the following reasons: pervasive language, sexual material, and drug use.
The Nerds Templar 