“Dumb Money” Review
Paul Dano stars in “Dumb Money” as Keith Gill a.k.a. “Roaring Kitty” a.k.a. “Deep Fucking Value,” a financial analyst who starts an incredible stock market short squeeze utilizing the company GameStop.
Back in early 2021, things were so different for me compared to now. I was a junior in college taking online classes as a global pandemic raged. The previous year was full of misinformation, fear, anger and a demand for us to change the behaviors and systems that had oppressed many, especially minorities and the working class. I had just helped vote a wannabe authoritarian dope out of office and, while I was coming out of a high from my oral surgery to remove my wisdom teeth, watched his most rabid followers storm the Capitol on January 6.
Out of this world of chaos, I began to see an alarming number of news stories about GameStop: the store where I get my new and used PlayStation video games. The stock of the company had become valued at $86.88 for a single share and it was all because a group of ordinary people banded together, bought the stock, became rich and made a bunch of suits on Wall Street lose billions and look like giant assholes. If you weren’t invested in this amazing true story back then, you certainly will be after watching “Dumb Money,” a smart, funny and tantalizing look at one of the strangest financial stories of recent years.
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and ordinary people are hurt bad by the world turning upside down, a financial analyst from Brockton, Massachusetts named Keith Gill (Paul Dano) makes a crazy decision by investing $53,000 of his money on the stock market into GameStop, a company that he feel Wall Street is underestimating. On his YouTube channel (where he goes by “Roaring Kitty”) and on the online Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets (where he goes by “Deep Fucking Value”), Gill makes his case to his fellow retail investors that this is a company worth investing in. Whether it be as a joke or because they believe in what Gill has to say, more and more people buy into the stock, driving its value through the roof in a short amount of time. This ruffles the feathers of plenty of Wall Street’s biggest names, who had bet that GameStop would fail and whose hedge funds are now losing money, resulting in a battle between the rich and the poor.
While I’m not an expert on the machinations of the stock market and, chances are, neither are you, what makes “Dumb Money” so exciting is that it is able to explain such complex information through great writing by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo and engaging performances by the film’s cast. “Dumb Money” is one of those films that makes you feel smarter and its financial language is conveyed in a way that doesn’t feel dumbed down or confusing.
Paul Dano is exceptional and, with some of his more recent performances having included a sadistic serial killer in “The Batman” and the caring father of Steven Spielberg in “The Fabelmans,” once again proves how much of a chameleon he is. His performance has the biggest weight of them as he’s not only the protagonist, but he also has to introduce us to his world. Fortunately, since Keith Gill’s social media platforms are all about bringing ordinary people into Wall Street, Dano is able to do the same thing for the audience by giving a performance that is full of intelligence, humor and heart. You understand his passion for both playing the stock market and sticking it to Wall Street and become completely engrossed in the success of this short squeeze.
Along with Keith Gill, his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodly) and his brother Kevin (Pete Davidson), the film also focuses on other working class people who see Keith’s videos and want in on the GameStop squeeze. They include a nurse and single mom named Jennifer (America Ferrera), a clerk at GameStop named Marcus (Anthony Ramos) and two college students named Riri and Harmony (Myha’la Herrold and Talia Ryder). Not only do these characters allow for a more well-rounded cast, but they also show more diversity in the groups of people suffering financial stress getting a chance to make money and give the finger to the wealthy. There’s college students putting themselves in massive debt for an education, essential workers and ordinary retail workers who find something to believe in.
Not only are these characters all going through hard times, they’re experiencing them in the years 2020 and 2021 which the film does an exceptional job bringing us back to. While the main events of the film took place only three years ago, it’s felt like an eternity since we were told that the COVID-19 shutdowns would be only two weeks long. While many of us have the scars of that time branded on us, I do feel that it’s important that we tell stories during this time period whether it’s in a ridiculous muder-mystery like “Glass Onion” or “Dumb Money’s” story of financial conquest.
The way “Dumb Money” depicts the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic is very effective at reminding us where we were at during that time period and showing us the hope that can emerge. One of the most heartfelt scenes in the whole film shows Keith Gill addressing his followers as the short squeeze grows bigger and giving them some comforting words as he describes 2020 as “a shitty year.”
One aspect of the film that I wasn’t expecting was how the hedge fund managers and CEOs at the heart of this story would be depicted. Obviously billionaires like Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Ken Griffen (Nick Offerman) are depicted as obscenely wealthy to the point where Griffen was able to buy a resort and work from there while Cohen keeps a massive pig in his mansion. However, the depiction of Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen), a hedge fund manager who is losing a lot of money due to the short squeeze, was handled in a very human manner with Seth Rogen giving a fantastic performance.
It’s an inspiring film of a bunch of little guys coming together to take down these behemoth billionaires who make their money off the failure of companies. Unlike his billionaire comrades, he is only worth hundreds of millions (Upon writing this sentence, I found writing that he’s only a millionaire was so funny that I accidentally snorted Cherry Coke out of my nose. It hurt.) and is depicted as a pretty good family man while also having the egotism that comes with so much wealth. Perhaps it’s because of Rogen’s inherent likability but you do feel some sympathy for him and the decision to provide some humanity to people that the average viewer will despise was a pretty smart choice on the film’s part.
Since “Dumb Money” is based on a book by writer Ben Mezrich, who wrote “The Accidental Billionaires” which became the basis for “The Social Network,” I think that some might be going into “Dumb Money” expecting a similar experience. You’re not going to get that but you’re still going to watch a smart, funny, entertaining film that is so strange it could only have come from our reality. Instead of having David Fincher’s moody direction, director Craig Gillespie embraces the fast-paced, insane world of social media platforms like Reddit, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok that spawned this whole affair to begin with. Not only are these apps and websites how the film’s characters spread their information but it’s also how they communicate their frustration with the state of the world.
When you have the director of “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Cruella” and “I, Tonya” helming “Dumb Money,” it’s a safe bet that this film is going to be wild and silly at times but only to get its point across. After all, if the rich can behave in such a crazy manner while they sit back and make more money, why can’t Keith Gill dip a chicken tender in a glass of champagne and eat it? It seems pretty reasonable by comparison. With crazy imagery and wildly entertaining characters, “Dumb Money” is sure to entertain not just as a business drama involving the stock market, but as a comedy.
“Dumb Money” feels like the perfect balance of being crowd-pleasing while also having such a bold intelligence to it. In an age where it feels like original films are being overshadowed by franchises and IPs, “Dumb Money” is the kind of movie that should appeal to everyone while also being bold. Here’s to hoping I’m right.
