Dumb Money

In cinemas now

Craig Gillespie demonstrated his appetite for an underdog story with 2017’s I, Tonya and showcases it once again with Dumb Money, a retelling of the stranger than fiction events of January 2021, when a group of zealous Reddit users caused the stock price of GameStop to reach 30 times its original value.

This manoeuvre, known as a ‘short squeeze’ in the financial industry, had major consequences for a number of hedge funds and the brokerage Robinhood, whose decision to temporarily halt people’s ability to buy GameStop stock rightfully led to accusations of market manipulation and a series of class actions being filed against them.

Gillespie’s film makes for a fun, though not entirely original, recreation of these events, with its stellar ensemble cast ensuring it is mostly greater than the sum of its parts. Paul Dano’s performance as Keith Gill (known as DeepFuckingValue or Roaring Kitty on social media), whose live-streamed stock analysis played such a critical role in this short-lived phenomenon, is dependably excellent, while America Ferrera (fresh off her brilliant performance in Barbie) and Shailene Woodley are the standouts amongst a supporting cast that also includes comedic heavyweights Nick Offerman, Pete Davidson, and Seth Rogen.

If anything holds Dumb Money back, it’s the fact that, in a year when Air, The Beanie Bubble, and Tetris have also attempted to give us quick-witted flicks about niche business tales, it feels more than a little familiar. While it’s arguably a lot more engaging than any of those films, it’s a long way off the subgenre standard set by The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street, despite its best attempts to recreate the defiantly effervescent tone of such films. Nonetheless, its performances and slick use of contemporary hip-hop bangers (I’ll never tire of hearing WAP in a film soundtrack) makes it worth the price of entry.