Dumb Money: The Roaring Kitty vs. Wall Street
January 2021, the height of COVID-19. An enthusiast named Keith Gill, known online as “Roaring Kitty” (played by Paul Dano), starts a YouTube channel urging his followers to massively buy shares of GameStop. Gradually, the stock’s rise gains momentum, sending tremors through Wall Street and causing hedge fund managers to lose billions.
Shailene Woodley as Caroline in “Dumb Money”
Films about financial crises, pyramid schemes, and other cataclysms often face a daunting task: staying focused and explaining the events in an accessible language to a non-expert audience. Fortunately, Craig Gillespie’s new project (“Cruella,” “I, Tonya”) confidently – and in just 100 minutes – unravels one of the most astonishing stories of recent times, reminding us of the importance of resisting circumstances and the power of Reddit users. The only thing missing is Margot Robbie explaining the intricacies of the stock market in a bubble bath with a glass of champagne.
The Rise of Roaring Kitty
Keith Gill loves the “market.” In the fall of 2020, this ordinary millennial, living in Boston with his wife (Shailene Woodley) and child, runs an unpopular YouTube blog, prefers cheap beer, and mourns his sister who died during the pandemic. Gill has parents and a goofy brother (of course, Pete Davidson), who works as a delivery driver – they also need support. Everything changes when Gill decides to bet on GameStop, a struggling company that sells video game merchandise. Six months later, with the help of a horde of Reddit fans, Gill’s wish marathon becomes a real sensation: GameStop shares soar, Wall Street panics, hedge funds and other institutions collapse, and billions are lost.
Paul Dano as Keith in “Dumb Money”
The film was developed concurrently with hearings in the U.S. Congress, where authorities suspected both sides of foul play and investor manipulation. The project is based on the non-fiction book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, an author known for his meticulous and similar exposé material (he previously wrote about Mark Zuckerberg in “The Accidental Billionaires,” which served as the basis for David Fincher’s “The Social Network”). The term “dumb money” in financial jargon refers to individual investors who are supposedly hopeless in the world of big capital and therefore cannot achieve great success. Gillespie, along with an impressive cast, proves that there is always a chance, you just need public awareness, word of mouth, and modest investments. After wading through dozens of unfamiliar concepts (shorts, squeezes, etc.), “Dumb Money” gains integrity and cohesion, pleasantly surprises with humor, and deserves attention, if only for its diverse cast of participants – real people who temporarily made a revolution and almost overthrew the wealthy.
Pete Davidson as Kevin in “Dumb Money”
A Star-Studded Cast
In addition to the main connecting link, Dano, the acting ensemble boasts big and not-so-big names. Representing Wall Street are Sebastian Stan as the shady Bulgarian entrepreneur Vlad Tenev, as well as Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Offerman as frantic (and extremely boring) arbiters of fate who play tennis and keep pigs as pets in their luxurious mansions. Among the ordinary people, Anthony Ramos (a GameStop employee with a passion for rapper Megan Thee Stallion), America Ferrera (a nurse with a mortgage and children who need braces), Miha’la Herrold, and Talia Ryder (student streamers looking for easy money) grace the screen. “Dumb Money,” like “The Big Short,” knows how to attract viewers and focuses on the characters as the main narrators.
The screenplay by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo (“Orange Is the New Black”) doesn’t shine with novelty, sometimes too bluntly and simplistically portraying the rich and the confrontation between the two worlds in general, but it always remains human, daring, and skillfully organized. As a result, it’s an inspiring film about coincidences that are not coincidences at all, and civic engagement that can be a great way to make money.