Dumb Money

Dumb Money is a ripped-from-the-headlines docudrama about the GameStop short squeeze saga. A Massachusetts financial analyst named Keith Gill (Paul Dano) inspired a ragtag group of novice traders (America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, Myha’la Herrold,Talia Ryder) on Reddit to invest in the public stock GameStop. The retailer sold video games in brick-and-mortar locations in strip malls and was facing financial difficulty. Affluent, experienced Wall Street investors were betting that the stock would continue to fail. They hoped to profit from the company’s downfall. A distillation of the rallying cry of Keith Gill and his followers would be “Let’s stick it to the man and prevent the hedge funds from running this video game merchant into the ground.”

This is a David and Goliath story where an underdog triumphs over impossible odds. It was aided by the government-enforced shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. People at home couldn’t spend disposable income on movies, restaurants, or vacations. Why not invest? Robinhood, a trading app with zero commission fees, made buying shares easy for the uninformed. Much of the GameStop action took place on this platform run by co-founders Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan) and Baiju Bhatt (Rushi Kota). The sheer number of shares purchased caused the price to soar astronomically. These shareholders benefited financially. In contrast, professional Wall Street investors lost billions.

The account is a populist tale that stokes resentment toward the 1%. I’ll admit it’s nice to see a guy like Keith Gill succeed. He enjoys sharing his insight and good fortune with his online fans. He has an infant daughter with his supportive wife (Shailene Woodley). Caroline is there by his side through thick and thin. The hissable antagonists include Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen), founder of the hedge fund Melvin Capital, who bets against GameStop; Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio), Plotkin’s mentor; and Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman), CEO of the hedge fund Citadel. Griffin pressures Robinhood founders to shut down the ability to buy on their trading app. Entrepreneurs Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt quickly flip from benevolent to evil with their decision.

This was fascinating as it played out in real life, but the developments are less compelling as dramatized here. We still need to interpret the historical context of these recent happenings. The filmmakers should have waited to come up with a thesis. The screenplay is adapted by Orange Is the New Black staff writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo from Ben Mezrich’s book, The Antisocial Network. Even at 104 minutes, the production is unnecessarily padded to stretch this out to a theatrical feature.

Dumb Money is a superficial and flippant handling of what happened. I rarely mention profanity in my reviews, but the dialogue is a near-constant stream of foul language. The F word is tossed around so gratuitously that it verges on the comical. Furthermore, The narrative predicably simplifies personalities down to a black-and-white situation. People with low incomes are the righteous. The wealthy are wicked. It’s not nuanced. Nor is it cinematic, either. It isn’t exciting watching individuals click “buy” on their phones and then comment on their rising investments. If what played out in the stock market in January 2021 interests you, this may hold some appeal. For me, it came up short. Pun intended.

09-21-23