The smart money was always on Dumb Money, Hollywood's take on the GameShop short squeeze, being a poor man’s Big Short.
During the pandemic, the tale of thousands of small investors clubbing together to thwart Wall Street Hedge Fund types trying to short the computer game chain GameShop, offered a rare moment to cheer.
It was inevitable that Hollywood would come calling, the only question was what shape they would impose on it. The obvious precedent is Adam McKay’s film about the ‘08 financial crash, The Big Short. It’s another tale of a disparate figures going against Wall Street's conventional wisdom, but what set that film apart was the way it cut through the obfuscating jargon and actually explained how the financial system worked.
Dumb Money gives you just enough to know that Hedge Fund managers shorting stock is bad, and short squeezing is good. In another era, it might have been a classic Frank Capra little guy standing up to the establishment tale starring James Stewart.
The film does a lot right, it handles the multi-strand narrative competently and knows how to entertain an audience, but it has a central flaw: it messes up its heroes and villains.
The GamesShop short squeeze involved lots of small investors – the Dumb Money of the title – investing in stock after being rallied by YouTubers and a Reddit page. The little guys include a high school lesbian couple, a heavily in debt single mother working in a hospital and a disgruntled GameShop employee.
Central though is Keith Gill, a cat-loving YouTuber posting investment advice while working from home during the pandemic. Gill is played by Paul Dano, coming off a couple of sensational performances in Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and as Riddler in The Batman. He’s an odd star in that the roles that best suit him, nerds, geeks, wimps, bring out the worst in him. When a role stretches him he can be incredible, but a socially awkward nerd in a basement is a little bit too much in his comfort zone.
Of course, this wouldn't be an issue if there were some strong villains for us to take against but the film falls down by casting D'Onofrio, Offerman and Rogen as its Wall Street baddies. Granted, Sebastian Stan is convincingly slimey as Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, but the other three are just too likeable and nobody’s idea of a Gordon Gekko.
Dumb Money (15) Directed by Craig Gillespie. Starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Nick Offerman, Vincent D’Onofrio, Sebastian Stan, America Ferrera and Seth Rogen. Running time: 104 mins.
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