In the middle of the pandemic, amateur investors are mobilizing on the internet to buy shares of the video game store GameStop in order to drive the stock up and thus shake the all-powerful of Wall Street.
The popular and critical success of The Social Network and Moneyball launched – or revived – a genre that could be described as “comedy-drama chronicling a complex but well-known phenomenon.” These films pique curiosity, because they tell recent stories that are often highly publicized and invite moviegoers to spend a moment in insider circles.
Dumb Money is the most recent, following in the footsteps of The Wolf of Wall Street, War Dogs and The Big Short. Like these, it is very entertaining. However, it is more assertive, almost militant. There is a desire to portray amateur investors as revolutionaries trying to shake the fortress of the rich.
At the front of this uprising is Keith Gill, played by the excellent Paul Dano. Accustomed to the roles of troubled people (Prisoners, The Batman), the actor convincingly plays a friendly young father passionate about finance who takes pleasure in passing on his knowledge on YouTube. In addition to his wife (Shailene Woodley) and his brother (Pete Davidson) who support him, we also follow the stories of those who apply his advice: a nurse (America Ferrera), two students (Myha’la Herrold and Talia Ryder) and a GameStop employee (Anthony Ramos). The villains are played by Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Sebastian Stan and Vincent D’Onofrio. That’s a lot of characters. But since these are known faces and the story is well structured, we don’t get lost.
The intricacies of stock markets are also well explained through different narrative mechanisms. Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella) makes good use of extracts from TV reports, TikTok videos or memes posted on Reddit forums. These also have the effect of taking us back to a not-so-distant era when the majority of people wore a mask.
Dumb Money is well written, beautifully acted and skillfully directed, but lacks the charm of other works in the genre. We think, for example, of BlackBerry, released earlier this year. The GameStop drama and the pandemic may still be too fresh in our minds.
