One of the 21st century’s unlikeliest success stories is hitting the big screen. Stacked with an ensemble for the ages, Dumb Money chronicles the wild tale of the infamous GameStop short-squeeze, the multi-month Reddit movement that skyrocketed the video-game retailer’s dormant stock from the price of a cup of coffee to over $400 per share. Dumb Money premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month to rave reviews, and chatter leaving the festival circuit did not oversell. Packed full of captivating performances, immersive editing, and an honest underdog narrative for the ages, Dumb Money is a resounding success.
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Immediate flowers go to Paul Dano. The 39-year-old actor is known to most for playing unsettling creeps (see: Prisoners, The Batman), but his performance as Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty, is anything but. Dano’s versatility is on full display with his version of this modern-day Robin Hood, exuding a quiet charisma that makes him an instantly likable protagonist. In a film full of morally gray parts, Gill persists in his “champion of the little guy” mentality without sacrificing character development along the way. The long-running dilemma of “all good cannot be all powerful” and vice versa permeates throughout this film, and Gill gives that ultimatum a run for its money. A big shoutout goes to Shailene Woodley as well, who plays Keith’s wife, Caroline. Woodley is Dano’s most frequent on-screen partner and consistently brings the most out of him.
Dano’s performance is also pedestaled by his greater supporting cast, which warrants big praise to casting directors Bret Howe and Mary Vernieu. The top of Dumb Money‘s ensemble are real-life roles that were on full display to the general public just over two years ago, such as New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, hedge fund managers Ken Griffin and Gabe Plotkin, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Howe and Vernieu crushed the castings of every single character and director Craig Gillespie brought out genuine performances from these actors. Vincent D’Onofrio (Cohen), Nick Offerman (Griffin), Seth Rogen (Plotkin), and Sebastian Stan (Tenev) were all immersed in their parts, avoiding putting on a parodic impression, which is a feat that cannot be understated. Dumb Money ran the risk of running off the rails if it leaned into caricatures, but all of the aforementioned actors came to play.
Dumb Money is Pete Davidson’s career-defining performance thus far. Portraying Keith’s brother Kevin, Davidson is laugh-out-loud hilarious throughout without telling jokes just for the sake of humor. His quips are a natural extension of his dialogue, something that has to be attributed to Davidson’s well-documented improv skills as well as screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo’s script. While Dano faces an uphill battle in this year’s stacked Best Actor category, don’t be surprised if Davidson sneaks into the running for Best Supporting.
Performance praise continues with the auxiliary cast. America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, and Talia Ryder all play outsiders who do not directly interact with Gill or the Wall Street group but help strengthen the stakes tenfold. Ferrera plays a struggling single mom nurse. Ramos acts as a GameStop employee with $170 to his name. Ryder supports as a college student up to her neck in debt. These “everyman” characters give significant color to what would otherwise be a fairly black-and-white story, as they showcase the firsthand effects that this short squeeze had on people of all walks of life. These three, in particular, somehow capture authentic chemistry with Gill despite never sharing the screen with him, a standing ovation-level accomplishment in and of itself.
Having so many characters at play also gives Dumb Money an all-gas style of pacing. Clocking in at 104 minutes, Dumb Money is already moving quicker than most major motion pictures these days, and its leaps from supporting subplot to supporting subplot help keep that train moving. This proper pacing can be a curse at times, as the expected adversity ahead failed to linger long enough to elicit a true feeling of worry. It felt like the underdogs were in control for just about the entire run time, which, to be fair, is mostly how it played out in real life.
Engaging pacing also has to be attributed to Kirk Baxter’s editing. With audience attention span at an all-time low, films have begun to get a bit more creative when it comes to retaining their viewers’ focus. Dumb Money excels in this avenue by interweaving Reddit screenshots, news headlines, TikTok reactions, and r/wallstreetbets memes with those mesmerizing GenZ edits. These cut-ins also helped enhance the national scope of the short squeeze, consequently upping the stakes come the final act.
Dumb Money is the shot of adrenaline that the fall movie season needs. Those that bought shares of $GME in January 2021 will be left smiling at the retelling of the stonk movement while those who are being introduced to this moment in time will feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. It’s hilarious. It’s wholesome. It’s hope. A sure-fire disruptor in the imminent awards season, Dumb Money possesses all the punk-rock energy that the real life story had.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Dumb Money lands in select theaters on September 15th and opens wide on September 29th.
