Like many of you, I’ve been wondering if there’s anything new in movie theaters filled with superheroes, sequels, prequels and unnecessary Disney remakes.
Well, we saw the one-two punch of BarbieHeimer this summer, and another hopeful sign was the emergence of the “business” movie in 2023, including such titles as “Air”, “Blackberry” and “The Beanie Bubble.”
“Dumb Money” directed by Craig Gillespie (who also made “I, Tonya”), begins in the depths of the Covid year 2020. Keith Gill (played by Paul Dano) is a young Massachusetts dad, financial analyst and a part-time YouTuber with a site called “Roaring Kitty.” Sitting down before his computer screen, wearing a hippy-dippy sweatshirt and a Rambo bandanna around his head, Keith explains why he just plain likes the stock prospects of GameStop—y, know, the video game store at the mall—and why he’s invested his savings in it.
His pitch catches fire with ordinary folks around the country, including a first-responder nurse, a lesbian college couple in Texas, and even a lonely GameStop employee. These individual small investors are derided as “dumb money” by the big Wall Street players.
While the stock surge creates millions in value for Keith and his followers, it’s costing billions for the hedge-fund bigwigs who make money betting on companies to fail. (They’re the sons of Gordon Gekko, who would wreck a business because it was wreckable.)
In response to the GameStop fever, the Wall Streeters sweat, panic, pull some shenanigans, and wind up in front of a climactic Zoom Congressional hearing along with Keith.
“Dumb Money” may remind you of the Frank Capra classics about common man heroes set against the overwhelming angst of the Great Depression.
In Gillespie’s film, Covid constantly marks the characters’ lives, from Gill’s slacker brother (played by Pete Davidson) a disgruntled Grub Hub-style delivery driver; to the billionaires lounging in their pandemic hide-aways, (where only the help is required to mask up.)
Paul Dano doesn’t dominate the film like a Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper, but he’s in the likable tradition of the Capra hero who is startled to find he’s leading a movement. An interesting cast includes Shailene Woodley, as his wife, and America Ferrera—as in “Barbie”, again speaking for the common folk.
In this film, “based on a true story”, the fat cats and weasels are played by Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, Sebastian Stan, and a mustache-free Nick Offerman.
“Dumb Money” tests positive on a scale of four out of five.