With: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera, Vincent D'Onofrio, Myha'la Herrold, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Seth Rogen, Talia Ryder, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, Kate Burton, Clancy Brown, Rushi Kota, Larry Owens, Dane DeHaan, Olivia Thirlby
|
Written by: Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo, based on a book by Ben Mezrich
|
Directed by: Craig Gillespie
|
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual material, and drug use
|
Running Time: 104
|
|
Date: 09/15/2023
|
|
|
|
The Buck (Game)Stops Here
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
This irreverent, based-on-a-true-story comedy miraculously makes its complex mechanics easily graspable, while its lovable, hilarious misfit heroes helps avoid any whiff of seriousness or prestige.
Keith Gill (Paul Dano) is a low-level financial analyst, and a part-time Redditor and YouTuber who likes to chat about the stock market. He explains to his audience why he thinks GameStop is a good stock, and indeed, has literally put his money where his mouth is, investing over $50,000 of his and his wife Carlone's (Shailene Woodley) savings in it.
Meanwhile, a wealthy hedge fun man, Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen), is trying to "short" the stock by betting against it, attempting to run the company out of business. Keith's posts begin to gain traction, and several small-time and amateur investors — including nurse Jenny (America Ferrera), GameStop store employee Marcus (Anthony Ramos), and in-debt college students Riri (Myha'la) and Harmony (Talia Ryder) — begin to buy into GameStop.
Soon, these misfits and outcasts begin making an actual dent in the market, stirring things up, increasing their wealth… and leading to a Congressional inquiry.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, Dumb Money has the same mischievous feel as his I, Tonya, told with a refreshing degree of snark, and flying in the face of so many solemn, award-ready, based-on-a-true-story movies. The movie is busy and full of flash as it incorporates talking-head newscasters to pontificate on the stock market side of things, while a flood of Reddit memes represents the attitude of the GameStop fans, urging each other not to sell their increasingly valuable stocks with mysterious terms like "diamond hands," "HODL," and "tendies."
But before it can induce headaches (as the similar The Big Short often did), Dumb Money returns to the characters, humble, everyday humans who just want a chance at life. On the flipside, there are, of course, villains. In addition to Rogen's Gill, Vincent D'Onofrio, Nick Offerman, and Sebastian Stan are snakily effective as loathsome billionaires, while Pete Davidson gives the movie a lift as Keith's numbskull brother, and the world's worst DoorDash driver. Dumb Money leaves off with a message of hope; even if the game is rigged in favor of the uber-wealthy, there are still ways for rebels with causes to play.
|
