Review
DUMB MONEY – Review
‘Dumb money” is what hedge fund managers call ordinary people investing in the stock market, as in “the smart money is on…” DUMB MONEY is highly entertaining movie based on a real thing, when those little guys turned the tables on the big investors and kept a little company called GameStop afloat – which burned some hedge fund guys who had “shorted” the stock, essentially betting it would fail.
You probably heard this story, since it was all over the news because it was so crazy, about stock in GameStop, the mall stores that sell video games, suddenly becoming hot and soaring high, to the moon, even.
Wealthy hedge fund managers calling individual “retail” investors the “dumb money” is mean but it is also kind of true. Due to their vast resources, hedge fund mangers have an enormous advantage over any small investors, so the little guy doesn’t stand a chance.
But just this one time, the giant didn’t win over the little guy.
DUMB MONEY is such great fun because it is such a classic David versus Goliath underdog story (which Americans have historically loved) and because it is a true story, with arrogant, greedy rich guys as the villains. Director Craig Gillespie, who also directed I, TONYA, also strikes a perfect balance between comedy and human drama in this feel-good story in DUMB MONEY. On top of that, it fills the parts with the perfect cast. Done and done.
But beware: don’t try this at home. This was a special time and this turn of the worm took Wall Street by surprise. Now that they’ve seen it, Wall Street won’t be fooled again this way. You can’t catch this financial lightning in a bottle a second time.
The film is the perfect mix of humor and serious, and is filled with a cast perfectly suited to their parts. That spot-on casting starts with Paul Dano as Keith Gill, a nerdy young guy with a wife (Shailene Woodley), a baby, and a low-level job at Mass Mutual, who under the name Raging Kitty, hosts a YouTube blog on investing in the stock market from his basement.
When Keith Gill graduated from college with a finance degree, it was just in time for the Wall Street meltdown and the Great Recession, so he started doing dabbling in the stock market as a way to make a little cash – a gig job. His Raging Kitty blog has followers for his talks on his investment strategy, but things take a big turn up when he decides to talk about his recent decision to buy stock in GameStop. The big money guys are “shorting” it – meaning they are essentially betting that is will go under – but Raging Kitty thinks it is undervalued and, basically, he “likes the stock.”
Surprisingly, others do too, and start buying GameStop stock. Maybe it is because there is something mean-spirited in betting a company will fail, or because of resentment towards the one-percent fat cats that Raging Kitty thinks got GameStop wrong, and maybe even because of a fondness for a familiar brand where they bought games as kids. Whatever, the reason, when others start buying GameStop, the stock that was declining starts going up.
Millionaire hedge fund owner Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) responds to the little-guy investor interest by scoffing – and doubling down on his investments. Plotkin is spending the lock-down in luxurious comfort in Florida, while staying in touch with billionaires Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman) and Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio). “Dumb money” they all say, their term for small investors who lack their resources, a play on “the smart money is on…” They are the “smart money” and they know dumb money never wins. Ever.
But something unexpected happens, as you may recall from news reports. Raging Kitty and the GameStop stock become a meme, and suddenly things take off. Really take off – “to the moon,” as the people on Reddit say. A new app that makes small investments easy, run by start-up millionaires Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan) and Baiju Bhatt (Rushi Kota), helps make the boom happen. And then it becomes a national news story, and the tale of the “little investors that could” versus the big fat cats who couldn’t believe it could happen, is off and running.
This makes for one fun and funny movie, with something meaningful and satisfying to say about our current state of our have-and-have-not economy. Among the “retail investors,” as the ordinary people are called, are a nurse played by America Ferrera, a single mom struggling as an overworked, underpaid “essential worker.” There are also a couple of college students, (Talia Ryder and Myha’la), who already have piles of student loan debt waiting for them, and a guy who actually works at GameStop (Anthony Ramos), which has been allowed to stay open during lock-down by claiming to be an “essential” business because it also sells computer supplies.
Not everyone is on board with Raging Kitty’s investment plan, including his snarky younger brother Kevin (Pete Davidson), who is working delivery for Door Dash. The same for the nurse’s co-worker (Larry Owens) and the GameStop clerk’s store manager (Dane DeHaan)
One of the best things this film does is list every character’s net worth along with their name, just to underline their socioeconomic standing. There are actually three tiers: ordinary working folks, millionaires, and billionaires, each as far apart as the other in many ways.
Every one of those parts are so perfectly cast, that the mix of humor and human drama just rolls out effortlessly. Paul Dano is a standout as a shy, smart nerdy guy who is both defiant and aware he is in over his head, while the scenes with him and Shailene Woodley as his supportive wife are both funny, believable and warm. Dano’s scenes with Pete Davidson as obnoxious brother Kevin are brilliantly funny and one of Davidson’s best. The outgoing, unfiltered brother are as the two very different brothers interact, with Davidson’s loud, unfiltered Kevin relentlessly teases Dano’s shyer “nerdy” brother, who fights back by pointing out that at least he’s not living in their parents basement. Their scenes, and those with the whole family, are both hilarious and completely believable. Much the same – funny and believable – can be said of the other investors and their social circles.
In a brilliant bit of casting against type, Seth Rogen is also a standout, on the other side of the investing equation. Living in luxury that puts the pandemic as a distant event, Rogen’ Gabe Plotkin is laughing and mean-spirited, mocking the retail investors while buying a seaside home in Florida or meeting even bigger rich guy Nick Offerman at the tennis resort where the billionaire moved his business headquarters during the pandemic. The millionaire and the billionaire socialize and seem at ease at the start, but as the impossible tale unfolds, there Seth Rogen’s Gage shows a growing fear of both sides, the army of little investors nibbling his profits on one and the big money shark circling on the other.
It’s clever and entertaining but it really doesn’t pile on a lot of financial detail. This is no THE BIG SHORT, the brilliantly biting, brainy docudrama about the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and Wall Street shenanigans that led to the Great Recession. This movie, this story, is really more about people, and that human focus makes it completely accessible to those who go cross-eyed at numbers.
However, be warned: This is not investing advice, as fun as this film is to watch. You won’t be able to do this yourself now because this crazy fun ride happened because of special set of circumstances during the pandemic and because Wall Street was so convinced it couldn’t happen. Now they know it can and Wall Street has closed off those chinks in its armor. One clue that this might not be a good investment strategy is in the film’s credits: the Winklevoss twins are listed as producers. You remember them, the rich and privileged brother in THE SOCIAL NETWORK? So don’t get giddy and get fooled. Just have fun watching this satiric wild ride, but remember nothing on Wall Street was really changed by what happened.
While it didn’t really change Wall Street, several unique factors came together to make this miracle happen, include the pandemic with a huge number of people online and isolated at home with little else to do, the rise of memes and Reddit, and an app that made it easy. Pair those with with the hedge fund managers’ arrogant “it can’t happen” assumptions of the big “smart money” guys – who weren’t so smart this time.
There is nothing as satisfying as seeing jerks get their just desserts. With sharp dialog, perfect casting and a terrific story told with humor and heart, DUMB MONEY is a crowd-pleasing winner with something to say about economic fairness.
DUMB MONEY opens Friday, Sept 22, in theaters.
RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars
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