This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.

Dumb Money is a movie meant for ordinary people. This is not Wall Street, which has ultimately been commandeered by financiers as a how-to guide for working on, well, Wall Street. Nor is this The Wolf of Wall Street, which ended up being a how-to guide on partying while working on Wall Street. Instead, this is a movie for the average person. The regular retail investor. The person who buys 100 shares of IBM stock and holds it for a rainy day. This is what's meant by ‘dumb money'. Conversely, money invested by financial firms (Blackrock, hedge funds, etc.) is ‘smart money'.

This movie doesn't care about ‘smart money'. It's focus is on one man in particular. Meme-lord Keith Gill (aka Roaring Kitty and DeepFuckingValue), who is played exceptionally well by Paul Dano. This name might ring a bell when, in 2021, the GameStop short squeeze was featured heavily in the news. Here we're treated to a delightful breakdown of the events that caused the short squeeze, based on Ben Mezrich's book The Antisocial Network, wherein the vox populi made itself heard.

Keith is an analytical man. He believes that he has found an undervalued stock in GameStop. This drives him to invest in 50,000 shares and 500 calls of Gamestop. Taking to Youtube and Reddit, he breaks down his reasons for this investment in such a way that emboldens others to follow along. Not everyone understands him at first, including members of his own family. His brother (the delightfully comedic Pete Davidson) doesn't get it at first. His wife, played by a well-cast Shailene Woodley is more supportive, offering a critical helping hand at one point.

But others, such as America Ferrara's industrious hospital worker and GameStop employee Marcus (Anthony Ramos) do believe in him. There's also a lovely little in-joke of Industry‘s antihero Myha'la Herrold playing a student retail investor. Despite having never met Keith, they remain steadfast in their belief in him. Soon Keith and his legion of followers are causing problems for the hapless Gabe Plotkin (a convincing Seth Rogen). His hedge fund, Melvin Capital, are the ones who've primarily bet on GameStop losing. Creating a stock price for the company which is held, in Keith's eyes, artificially low.

Gabe flounders, trying ever more to cover his financial position whilst losing millions a day. Quickly, he finds himself leaning on other hedgies for help. Nick Offerman breathes some life into investor and hedgefund manager Ken Griffin with his trademark dry wit. Sebastian Stan's Vlad Tenev and Rushi Kota's Baiju Bhatt are late, yet enjoyable, additions to the film as the CEO's of trading platform Robinhood, who humorously struggle with the liquidity demands placed on them. But the real star is Vincent D'Onofrio's Stevie Cohen.

There is a darkness that permeates through his mesmerizing performance. Who is this person? What's he all about? It leaves the viewers wanting more. The real life Stevie Cohen is a private man, known primarily for his now shuttered hedge fund (the inspiration behind Billions) and his extensive (and expensive) art collection. Yet, as rendered in Dumb Money, we see an intriguing man working from home, interacting msotly with his beloved pet pig. Cohen could easily have his own film.

Through a creative mixture of real-life TV clips, and fittingly, lots of memes, Dumb Money is wonderful. Whilst its loud, abrasive style may put off some, there's more than enough talent to make this movie a hit. Only time will tell if Wall Street somehow tries to lionize the film for itself. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the wild ride.

Directed by Craig Gillespie, Dumb Money will be released in cinemas on September 22.