A One Mann’s Movies review of “Dumb Money” (2023).
Two of my favourite actors – Paul Dano and Shailene Woodley – as a married couple in the same film. This made “Dumb Money” a must watch in my book. And although not quite living up to the similar style of “The Big Short“, this was an entertaining waltz through very recent history.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s the pandemic year of 2020. Based on a true story, Keith Gill is a part-time investor who also has a Youtube channel offering amateur tips on investment strategies. But he finds an interesting stock – the mall-videogame store Game Stop – that the big hedge funds are ‘short-selling’ (i.e. if it fails, they make a lot of money**). Contrary to the view of the Goliath’s, this ‘David’ is convinced it’s a good investment and invests half of the life savings of himself and his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley) in its shares. Moreover, he advertises his views to his subscribers on Youtube and Reddit and a buying frenzy starts. But the hedge fund managers are not going to take this challenge lying down.
- ** If you think you are going to be confused by the story, it’s worth reading the history of this event on wiki here before you see the film.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language, sex references, drug misuse”).
Talent:
Starring: Paul Dano, Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson. America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, Seth Rogen, Talia Ryder, Sebastian Stan, Myha’la Herrold.
Directed by: Craig Gillespie.
Written by: Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo & Ben Mezrich.
Twitter Handle: #DumbMoneyMovie.
Brotherly friction. Keith (Paul Dano, R) with his brother Kevin (Pete Davidson). (Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment)
“Dumb Money” Review:
Positives:
- Often in “Based on a True Story” movies, the events we are watching are 5, 10 or more years old. So it is really interesting to have a film that is so up-to-date. It starts in late 2020 (after the trials and tragedies of Covid, nicely reflected in the film) and only finishes its tale last year.
- Paul Dano and Shailene Woodley are both as excellent as you would hope and really embody the married couple working within extraordinary circumstances. Woodley, I thought, was particularly strong.
- There’s a frenetic anarchic energy behind the film, realised through the use of well-chosen news footage and the flashing up of Tiktok, Youtube and Reddit notifications. A well edited movie by Kirk Baxter that must have been a lot of work.
- As a story, it’s good to see the little guys (generally) coming out on top over the ‘nasty bankers’. Although, the inequities of the system are laid bare through (excellent) footage of the ‘real people’ giving testimony in a pre-credits sequence, where subtitles describe the outcomes as of 2022.
Negatives:
- There is a general racket of rap music within the soundtrack that was not to my personal taste. I will admit though it added to that ‘anarchic’ flavour of the film. HOWEVER, and as I have moaned about countless times over multiple films (most recently in “The Blackening“), many of these songs include multiple and prominent usage of the “N-word”, something which I deplore within movies if not explicitly required within the context of the film.
- Through captions, we see the ‘net-worth’ of the different players in the movie both at the start of the film, during the film and at the end of the film. In particular, we follow Jenny (America Ferrera), a single-mum and nurse looking for new love; two female students, Riri (Myha’la Herrold) and Harmony (Talia Ryder); and Marcus (Anthony Ramos), a Game Stop employee. The ‘end-points’ reached by these character arcs are left frustratingly vague. For example, while most of them seemed to do well, one character ended the film with a negative net-worth which was unexplained.
- I will add this negative raised by the illustrious Mrs Movie Man. There is a ‘cute-meet’ between the same-sex couple Riri and Harmony during a college drinking ‘truth-or-dare’ session where Harmony has to put her hand in the knickers of Riri and keep it there for a minute. Mrs Movie Man thought that vulgar and lewd. (I don’t particularly feeling strongly against that, although there could equally have been a less titillating way of introducing the couple).
Summary Thoughts on “Dumb Money”
An entertaining film that has the ‘feel’ of “The Big Short” but without Margot Robbie in a bubble bath, which is obviously a big negative! ;-). The film is 105 minutes long: not normally something I would ever complain about. However, I can’t help but think that perhaps an extra 10 minutes would have helped round out some of the outcomes, both in respect to the investers and the hedge-fund execs.
[fblike]
Trailer for “Dumb Money”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXr8kcjK7rw . (note: this is the red-band trailer so NSFW due to language).
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
