DUMB MONEY

DUMB MONEY, an Underdog Story

Directed by Craig Gillespie, and based on the book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, DUMB MONEY is a clever ride through the early days of GameStop, the internet, and how the changing internet landscape affected Wall Street. Funny and witty, with a backstory that is so wild, it’s almost hard to believe it’s true. 

The movie features a stacked ensemble cast, including: Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Paul Dano, Vincent D’Onofrio, Shailene Woodley, Talia Ryder, Nick Offerman, and Sebastian Stan.

GameStop became a store that was intertwined in culture of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. There was a store in every city. Every gamer, regardless of age, wanted to be there - trying new games, exchanging old ones, getting accessories for their console. It was a one-stop shop for the video gaming era. In the 2010’s, business slowly started to decline. Buying stocks was not something seen as a safe bet, as more and more brokers and billionaires predicted the company would become a money pit. Then, in 2021, amidst a pandemic of all things, everything changed.

Paul Dano portrays Keith Gill, the real life guy who put his savings into GameStop, and innocuously posted about it. When the post goes viral, life gets interesting for Gill, his family - and surprisingly - Wall Street. As the stock takes off unexpectedly, it is great for Gill and his viewers, but leaves Wall Street shaken to its core by the stock's unforeseen success. 

The story of GameStop is a story of media, money, and also, a question of power - the men on Wall Street who always controlled the narrative of stocks and money, were suddenly being thrown into a narrative they had no control over, couldn’t understand, and they were bleeding money because of it. The everyday people were finally winning; they were making money and exchanging ideas online with zero input from brokers. 

In an effort to regain the power (and money) they were accustomed to, Wall Street and billionaire heavyweights set out to take on - or rather, take down - Keith Gill.

Gill, GameStop and Wall Street, emphasize a moment in modern history in many ways - we already had a collective realization in society that social media and the internet had the ability to make anyone famous, and let anyone be heard. But, Wall Street had neglected to take into account that nearly anyone could put this to use in stocks.

When we post, we never know which photo, tweet or TikTok could randomly go viral. For the people that happens to - like Gill - there is chaos that comes in those following weeks of hitting unexpected notoriety. In this instance, there was also an inconceivable flow of money that came with it. Gill made millions, while Wall Street was hemorrhaging. The conflict that ensues with this kind of money at stake, makes for an unpredictable rollercoaster ride between two clashing worlds.

DUMB MONEY is a fun watch, and an interesting story to look at, considering how many forms of social media are currently being used by billions of people around the globe. You can’t help but root for the underdogs in this dark comedy.