September 14, 2023
FILM: DUMB MONEY
DIRECTED BY: CRAIG GILLESPIE
STARRING: PAUL DANO, PETE DAVIDSON, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
“There’s more to life than a little bit of money. Don’t you know that?” So says Marge Gunderson in the Coen Brothers’ classic Fargo. For the people who got involved with the Game Stop stock frenzy in 2021 it meant risking what they had and reaching levels most never dreamed of prior to that major roller coaster ride.
The new film Dumb Money explores that massive buying and selling of stock shares by focusing mostly on the everyday people who got swept up into the lure of big money. Paul Dano stars as Keith Gill who, at the start of the film, has a small base of followers on his YouTube channel where he gives advice on stocks. Soon he sees the potential for Game Stop which was considered a loser stock by the billionaires in the industry. Gill’s audience that gets pulled into the frenzy include a nurse (America Ferrara), two in-debt college girls (Myhal’la Herrold and Talia Ryder), and a Game Stop retail employee (Anthony Ramos.) These people are poor but smart enough to know how to play the game. As they do, they start seeing their portfolios rise dramatically. That is, until the bottom begins to drop and the government steps in.
I’ll be the first to admit that the stock market is not something I’m particularly well versed in. As such, there are a few details here that went over my head. But that never takes away from the well-written script and overall intense dramatic arc. This is a pretty compelling story.
It also helps that the MANY characters found in the film are very well-developed during the brisk 104-minute running time. We get to know all of them as people. Part of their appeal is that they are portrayed by some familiar and relatable actors. Paul Dano gives one of his best performances as Gill, a social media figure who, with his shaggy hair and headband, looks like he just stepped out of a public university. It’s amazing to think that less than a year ago he was playing a father in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Pete Davidson plays his brother Kevin. The role initially appears very typical of what we’d expect from the former SNL star who’s on and off screen persona has often come across as more than a little unstable. He really adds some interesting layers here though. Generally, the actors do a great job of establishing themselves as characters we can easily connect with. Their looks and demeanors are similar to the dudes that make lots of money in the HBO series Silicon Valley.
Seth Rogan and Nick Offerman are great choices as billionaires Gabe Plotkin and Ken Griffin. They’re not the classically handsome guys who look like they’ve been winners their whole lives. Rather they are the “nerds” who made it big and still have something to lose.
Since this is a film taking place two years ago, it’s interesting to revisit what our life was like then as we were coming out of the pandemic. Many people were still socially isolated and spending their time online meeting and being influenced by others. The situation helped, in this case, the “have-nots” find themselves trading in a “haves” environment from the privacy of their homes. Characters do wear masks in public spaces but this doesn’t feel like a pandemic movie, the events just happened to take place at that particular moment in our recent past.
All of this is to say that Dumb Money is a very good film which captures the addictive quality of the stock market and how it affects a perhaps new population today due to social media and sites like YouTube. How these characters so easily buy and sell shares is familiar to any of us that have ever clicked our phones to make a quick purchase. Apple and Google have made it a breeze for any of us to get what we want. While other films have explored investors and the stock market (Wall Street, The Big Short) those mostly centered on the rich. This is a very relatable and modern story as it illustrates how accessible the world of money exchanges is to all of us today. One can feel the allure of clicking on those buy and sell tabs just by watching this film. Fortunately, some of the characters win and some lose, making this a cautionary tale for anyone who finds themselves sucked into this world that Marge Gunderson and Fargo tried to warn us about all those years ago.
Dumb Money opens today in limited theatrical release. It will expand in the coming weeks.
FILM: DUMB MONEY
DIRECTED BY: CRAIG GILLESPIE
STARRING: PAUL DANO, PETE DAVIDSON, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
“There’s more to life than a little bit of money. Don’t you know that?” So says Marge Gunderson in the Coen Brothers’ classic Fargo. For the people who got involved with the Game Stop stock frenzy in 2021 it meant risking what they had and reaching levels most never dreamed of prior to that major roller coaster ride.
The new film Dumb Money explores that massive buying and selling of stock shares by focusing mostly on the everyday people who got swept up into the lure of big money. Paul Dano stars as Keith Gill who, at the start of the film, has a small base of followers on his YouTube channel where he gives advice on stocks. Soon he sees the potential for Game Stop which was considered a loser stock by the billionaires in the industry. Gill’s audience that gets pulled into the frenzy include a nurse (America Ferrara), two in-debt college girls (Myhal’la Herrold and Talia Ryder), and a Game Stop retail employee (Anthony Ramos.) These people are poor but smart enough to know how to play the game. As they do, they start seeing their portfolios rise dramatically. That is, until the bottom begins to drop and the government steps in.
I’ll be the first to admit that the stock market is not something I’m particularly well versed in. As such, there are a few details here that went over my head. But that never takes away from the well-written script and overall intense dramatic arc. This is a pretty compelling story.
It also helps that the MANY characters found in the film are very well-developed during the brisk 104-minute running time. We get to know all of them as people. Part of their appeal is that they are portrayed by some familiar and relatable actors. Paul Dano gives one of his best performances as Gill, a social media figure who, with his shaggy hair and headband, looks like he just stepped out of a public university. It’s amazing to think that less than a year ago he was playing a father in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Pete Davidson plays his brother Kevin. The role initially appears very typical of what we’d expect from the former SNL star who’s on and off screen persona has often come across as more than a little unstable. He really adds some interesting layers here though. Generally, the actors do a great job of establishing themselves as characters we can easily connect with. Their looks and demeanors are similar to the dudes that make lots of money in the HBO series Silicon Valley.
Seth Rogan and Nick Offerman are great choices as billionaires Gabe Plotkin and Ken Griffin. They’re not the classically handsome guys who look like they’ve been winners their whole lives. Rather they are the “nerds” who made it big and still have something to lose.
Since this is a film taking place two years ago, it’s interesting to revisit what our life was like then as we were coming out of the pandemic. Many people were still socially isolated and spending their time online meeting and being influenced by others. The situation helped, in this case, the “have-nots” find themselves trading in a “haves” environment from the privacy of their homes. Characters do wear masks in public spaces but this doesn’t feel like a pandemic movie, the events just happened to take place at that particular moment in our recent past.
All of this is to say that Dumb Money is a very good film which captures the addictive quality of the stock market and how it affects a perhaps new population today due to social media and sites like YouTube. How these characters so easily buy and sell shares is familiar to any of us that have ever clicked our phones to make a quick purchase. Apple and Google have made it a breeze for any of us to get what we want. While other films have explored investors and the stock market (Wall Street, The Big Short) those mostly centered on the rich. This is a very relatable and modern story as it illustrates how accessible the world of money exchanges is to all of us today. One can feel the allure of clicking on those buy and sell tabs just by watching this film. Fortunately, some of the characters win and some lose, making this a cautionary tale for anyone who finds themselves sucked into this world that Marge Gunderson and Fargo tried to warn us about all those years ago.
Dumb Money opens today in limited theatrical release. It will expand in the coming weeks.