Dumb Money, which made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, earns 3 stars (out of 4) from Us Weekly film critic Mara Reinstein.
Close your eyes and flash all the means again to early 2021. Amid political upheaval and a pandemic (and, um, the buzz surrounding WandaVision), a forged of particular person merchants on Reddit began shopping for the GameStop inventory in droves to squeeze seasoned traders out of cash. The get-rich-quick gambit drew bold-faced headlines galore. Still, except you had been straight concerned, it was extra of a captivating finance blip than essential controversy with longterm impression.
Dumb Money, which focuses on the GameStop “short squeeze,” possible received’t trigger main reverberations on a cinematic stage, both. In the tech-business biopic subgenre, The Social Network and The Big Short stay the extra subtle movies. But by way of riveting and depraved leisure, this comedy can’t be undervalued. After all, crowd-pleasing takes on particular that means when the underdogs get to stay their collective center finger to The Man.
The story is stranger than fiction — in a great way! Consider that the man behind the motion was a cat lover live-streaming from his basement in a quiet Boston city. Keith Gill (Paul Dano) is an unassuming monetary analyst making respectable cash when he decides to sink $50,000 into GameStop. You know, the online game retailer quietly taking on house in suburban malls. He reveals his resolution together with different monetary insights on a Reddit thread underneath the moniker Roaring Kitty.
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His data and unbridled enthusiasm for his valuable new inventory spurs his mostly-broke followers to take the plunge and make investments on-line as effectively. This group features a Pittsburgh-based important employee (America Ferrera), a pair of Texas school college students freaking out over their debt (Myha’la Herrold, Talia Ryder) and a Detroit GameStop worker (Anthony Ramos). As the Davids begin to yield management over the inventory market, the hedge fund Goliaths (performed by Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio and Nick Offerman) begin to panic. So does the co-developer (Sebastian Stan) of the Robinhood buying and selling app.
Nick Offerman and Seth Rogen in ‘Dumb Money.’ Courtesy of TIFF
These energetic characters, together with their titles and web worths, are launched early on with a flourish. As in, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s 2020 hit “WAP” blares over the opening! But as a result of director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) tries to toggle all their storylines in underneath two hours, Dumb Money at instances seems like one lengthy snappy montage set to pop music. That means a few of the gamers — particularly Rogen and Offerman — come off too one-note. There’s additionally an annoying TikTok-like visible factor, as the display is consistently stuffed with quick-cut archival cable information clips and cash graphs and movies of individuals dropping their minds over the ever-changing fluctuations.
It’s a bit exhausting. It’s additionally straightforward to grasp why Gillespie selected this particular model over meaty substance. Deciphering the fast-paced monetary world could be an arduous process and Margot Robbie can’t simply as soon as once more clarify the complicated phrases in a bubble tub like she did in The Big Short. Dumb Money dumbs down the key factors in a means that’s accessible and user-friendly.
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In the shrewdest transfer of all, Dano performs Keith as the final working-class hero who’s open and desirous to genuinely please. He and his spouse (Shailene Woodley) aren’t obnoxious about their newfound mega-wealth; he and his brother (a well-cast Pete Davidson) bicker with love underneath each circumstance. Keith has a long-running inside joke to his followers about the rooster tenders he feeds his younger son. He even fails to return off as a tech bro whereas testifying in entrance of Congress. Albeit on Zoom.
Pete Davidson and Paul Dano in ‘Dumb Money.’ Courtesy of TIFF
Did Keith additionally break the legislation by making a sort-of unlawful pyramid scheme? Perhaps. But his model is the geeky everyman. And right here, the geeky everyman wins. For Dumb Money is each a rousing comedy and an efficient (and clearly well timed) story of outcasts who dared to problem the established order. Feel free to root for it.
Dumb Money opens in choose theaters on September 15 and nationwide on October 6.
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