Dumb Money (2023)

'Dumb Money' is based on the true story of that surge in GameStop stock a few years back, where the sickly company went from trading at a low $2.57 a share in April of 2020, to a high of $483 a share on January 28th, 2021. The particulars of how and why this happened are not entirely understood, but what seems to have set it off is the online opinions of a small time Massachusetts financial analyst named Keith Gill. Gill went all out bullish on the stock, buying $53,000 in shares and inspiring others not just to buy in, but to hold. Ultimately this unanticipated surge in the value of a supposed joke of a stock, put tremendous pressure on hedge funds that had banked on GameStop failing, the ripple effects of this cost and made fortunes and changed investing practices on Wall Street.

A sort of cousin to 'The Big Short' this is a triumph of the little guy, feel good film with a good sense of humor. Paul Dano plays Keith Gill, Shailene Woodly his wife and Pete Davidson his underachieving, comic relief brother. Nick Offerman, Seth Rogan and Vincent D'Onofrio are wall street guys, America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos and Talia Ryder play some of the real life small time investors who helped pushed the stock up and reaped the benefits. Set against the backdrop of the pandemic, it's interesting to see masks and the recent past on screen. The Wall Street guys in this are mostly white, as they tend to be, but the small investors are a racially and sexualy diverse cross set; the thing is its not "woke", it's what really happened. A solid little movie of a refreshingly different story. ***