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The most impressive feature of Craig Gillespie’s DUMB MONEY is that it quickly shows you that this is actually a period piece film. While the time it dedicates itself to is all too recent it becomes apparent that 2020 and 2021 where a time forever stapled in history. A scary and bewildering time where when we already look back on it is met with both disgust and laughs that “we actually lived like this.” Now before anyone jumps on this and is afraid this critic or DUMB MONEY is setting out to make a mockery of the early days of the global pandemic fear not, because here is a film that while poking fun at some angles cares deeply about its everyday woman or man and the ongoing trials they will face. Obstacles with finish lines that keep pushed further and further all do to those in power that see money and those in need of it as mere numbers as well as fools to play a game with. Dumb Money is a term coined by big financial groups to describe retail traders who buy, sell and trade funds and stock without the intense scrutiny and analytic teams that support financial groups. In other words its big hedge funds calling everyone stupid for not having the same “education” as them. Or in even simpler terms, they are assholes shitting on the little guy. Whatever way you want to see it DUMB MONEY is the hysterical rebellious brother to films such as “The Social Network,” and “The Big Short.” A film based on an insane time where the market found itself driven into chaos by even more chaotic but often exciting people. The little guy who saw a bully and stood up, or in simpler terms, people who just wanted to fuck shit up for Wall Street because when you’re locked down inside during a global pandemic people tend to get bored and need something to disrupt, and disrupt they did in a glorious manner.

Keith Gill (a charming Paul Dano) is a reserved man. He doesn’t like to pay for expensive beer, a small time day analyst for Mass Mutual he spends his days riding mass transit back home to his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley) and infant daughter. Anyone who sees him would barely acknowledge him, but it is when Keith goes into his basement that he comes alive. With a beer in hand, red bandana and reddit page called “r/wallstreetbets” Keith transforms into the peculiar Youtuber known as Roaring Kitty. His cat shirt wearing alter ego that is no longer the quiet boy from Brockton Massachusetts. Roaring Kitty’s gimmick is simple, he picks a stock that he likes and encourages others to follow in his path. Nothing you haven’t seen a million times on YouTube and now through wannabe financial advisors on TikTok. But this is 2020, the global pandemic has left us in the biggest height of meme and internet culture since the invention of the first viral video. Roaring Kitty’s antics may be laughable as seen by the comment section that tells him he “sucks balls” from users with the name…well;; “Ballz.” DUMB MONEY’s writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo (adapted from the book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich) understand the culture of today and it never comes across as older generation trying to preach to the youth. And for all the dumb antics of Roaring Kitty people are listening. People such as Pennsylvania nurse Jenny (America Ferrera) a now single mom struggling with two kids, college students Riri and Harmony (Myha’la Herrold and Talia Ryder respectively) and especially GameStop employee Marcus (Anthony Ramos). This is because Kitty has picked the next stock he likes, GameStop severely undervalued by and about to be short sold by major hedge funds is the perfect place to begin a revolution. Buy into GameStop and hold the line, Kitty proclaims. Who didn’t love GameStop as a kid, and seeing big time rich assholes try to destroy it doesn’t sit well with Kitty.

DUMB MONEY has a lot to set up and many members to introduce us to, but thankfully the film breezes quickly but never undervalues its ideas or impressive ensemble. It also avoids obnoxious behavior that ahs riddled financial films of recent memory. It never stops to explain things those unfamiliar with financial; lingo, but instead allows its everyday characters to experience in real time and learn as they go, much like many retail investors. Its when we hear Kitty talk and meet the bigger hedge fund people that we learn the malice behavior at play. This behavior coming from the likes of Co-Owner of Citadel hedge fund Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman) and Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) chief investor of Melvin Capital Management. Gillespie has some playful mockery of these two as they bask in their mansions and resorts they bought out so they can be away from the dangers of the pandemic and spend time out by the pool while others struggle day by day. Thankfully though the film never allows them to be just cartoonish villains, but instead real dangerous morons that you know will unfortunately make it out on the other side. For all of Rogen’s charm its hard to not feel disgust when his character spends his time moving from mansion to another all while berating the moving people. But DUMB MONEY doesn’t want to focus on them, they are just a mere source of the problem. No this film wants to remind us that Kitty’s reddit followers will take this world by storm. Meme culture is nothing new, but the film will leave you laughing and playfully eye rolling as you remember viral videos, memes and TikTok dances that not only dominated the early pandemic days but have now been used as a source of weapon against those with power. The hedge fund tyrants may see it as harmless and incredibly stupid but they soon learn that a meme featuring the Rise of the Planet of the Apes characters means war.

While DUMB MONEY feels great empathy for its everyday characters it never backs down from having a wild time generated from a group of people that found community when we were all so isolated. Its humor is always chuckle worthy especially when it comes to Keith’s brother Kevin (a righteous Pete Davidson) who like most of the world mocks Kitty but still follows his words. That may be DUMB MONEY’s secret sauce from being just another tell but don’t show rehash. It doesn’t just make an enemy of billionaires but gives us a hero in Keith/Kitty. Dano is incredibly charming as Kitty and becomes the representation of many who are able to express themselves online not through hatred or violence, but rather humor and crazy enough real facts. Where its other characters are never given real truth, in one of the funnier but all too real moments Marcus when asked about better work hours at GameStop is instead met with the offer to do a TikTok dance to earn better pay an insane offer trickled all the way down from corporate. It may seem unreal but these were times we lived in (and still do) so to find someone online like Kitty becomes a leader to many. DUMB MONEY is a call to arms at times and while maybe a silly one finds its way to meet an end that is emotional and a reminder that the fight is far from over. It may not be a film that gets you to storm the gates of Wall Street Versailles, but its impossible not to check your own finances as you leave the film and already start to plot your own move. And while reddit may be a cesspool at times if there’s one thing they have right its to hold the line and let the big guys burn themselves because their constant ability to ignore us can only be described as dumb.  

A-

DUMB MONEY WILL BE RELEASED IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE OCTOBER 6