The infamous GameStop stock scandal is told with humor and a talented ensemble cast in Dumb Money.
The Production: 3/5
One of the more interesting underground movement stories during the pandemic was that of the sudden rise of GameStop, the struggling video game store found in nearly every mall and shopping center, as a hotly traded stock by retail traders that put some hedge funds at risk when those funds had been short selling the stock in hopes of the company failing into bankruptcy. Leading the retail traders is Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a YouTube star going by the moniker of Roaring Kitty, who bets his family’s entire life savings (all $53,000) on the falling stock and inspires others to invest, including registered nurse Jenny (America Ferrera), college students Harmony (Talia Ryder) and Riri (Myha’la), and even GameStop retail employee Marcos (Anthony Ramos). At first, hedge fund managers Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman), Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) believe this is all a fluke, just some “dumb money” investors trying unsuccessfully to get rich. When the stock begins to really take off in mid-January 2021, the begin to panic, forcing retail trade company RobinHood, run by Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan) and Baiju Bhatt (Rushi Kota) to block all purchases of GameStop stock, but not selling, when they are asked for an advance on trading fees exceeding $3 billion.
Screenwriters Lauren Schuker Bloom & Rebecca Angelo (Orange is the New Black), adapting the non-fiction book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich, don’t paint Keith Gill as a folk hero, just some lower middle class guy who takes a chance and never lets go, played wonderfully by Paul Dano. The four investors that the story also follows are composites of many other investors, some that made out successfully while others lost pretty much their entire investment. None of the characters are carton caricatures but believably real people, with Seth Rogen once again putting in a nice dramatic performance (I thought he was well-cast in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans). Director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella, Pam & Tommy) tries to balance the humor with truthfulness and only succeeds some of the time. Dumb Money is a interesting story with interesting characters, but in the end, I felt that something was missing, as the film never takes a deep dive into the innerworkings of the financial world to really explain how the retail traders were able to pull this off or why the hedge funds took such a bath.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
Dumb Money was captured in 4.5K resolution on Arri Alexa Mini LF cameras and completed as a 4K digital intermediate in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Sony’s Blu-ray release features a nice 1080p AVC encode that has a nice film-like appearance. Colors are naturalistic and vivid without appearing overly saturated. Contrast is very good, with deep blacks and bright highlights. Detail is also very good, capturing textile fabrics and other textures. There were no noticeable compression artifacts.
Audio: 4.5/5
The default DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is a fairly straightforward dramatic style mix, mostly dialogue-driven with some occasional hip-hop tracks punctuating the film with additional surround and LFE activity.
Special Features: 2.5/5
Fat Cats and the Roaring Kitty (1080p; 7:44): Typical EPK fluff piece on them making of the film.
Diamond Hand Ensemble (1080p; 5:40): Another EPK fluff piece, this time on casting.
Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p; 2:41): Three very brief scenes are included – Locked Out, To the Moon and Brad + Marcos Dance.
Filmmakers Commentary: Writers and Executive Producers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo discuss developing the screenplay, casting, and other creative decisions they and director Craig Gillespie made during production.
Digital Copy: A Movies Anywhere code is included to redeem an HD Digital copy of the film.
Overall: 3.5/5
Dumb Money is an entertaining but not very deep look at the GameStop short squeeze scandal of early 2021, made interesting from its talented ensemble cast.
Dumb Money – Blu-ray + Digital
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Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.
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