Hollywood is many things, but one thing they aren’t is willing to sit on a juicy story. So, it's no surprise that just a few years after it happened, studios jumped on the bidding rights to the book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, the same author behind the book that inspired “The Social Network” and “Moneyball.” That book detailed the rise and fall of the GameStop stock short squeeze that occurred less than 3 years ago and the film that follows suit chronicles that tale with a spunky sense of self.
The film follows Keith Gill aka RoaringKitty aka DeepF***ingValue, played by Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “The Batman”), a financial analyst who decides to begin short squeezing the GameStop stock in 2020. As he does this, he posts about his position and feelings via Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit and begins to attract the ire of hedge fund managers such as Gabe Plotkin, played by Seth Rogen (“Pam & Tommy,” “Pineapple Express”), who’ve been shorting the stocks, betting on the store’s failure. Gill also attracts admirers, such as nurse Jenny, College students Riri and Harmony, and GameStop employee Marcos, played by America Ferrara (“Superstore,” “Ugly Betty”), Myha'la Herrold (“Industry,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies”), Talia Ryder (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between”), and Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”) respectively, who begins following his lead and short squeezing the stock via apps like Robin Hood, run by Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, played by Sebastian Stan (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “I, Tonya”) and Baiju Bhatt (“Useless Humans,” “Never Have I Ever”) respectively.
This is the sort of film where, while the story is true and stranger than fiction, people will turn up mostly due to the stacked cast, which also includes the likes of Vincent D'Onofrio (“Men in Black,” “Daredevil (2015)”) as Steve Cohen, Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation,” “The Last of Us (2023)”) as Ken Griffin, and Pete Davidson (“The King of Staten Island,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies”) as Keith’s younger brother Kevin. Each cast member mostly does their job well, fitting snuggling into the puzzle piece of a persona that the script has carved out for them. Rogen in particular does an excellent job using his sleazy attitude to portray the hedge fund guru, and Stan turns in a particularly hilarious turn as a “saying the quiet part out loud” depiction of the kind of money hungry “prey on the weak” people trying to get into these industries.
But much like his previous roles, Dano is the heart of it all, perfectly portraying the kind of genuine accidental everyman that he’s nailed for so long. His talent makes it so you not only believe him in the role, but you really root for him and Keith in their accidental campaign against the stock market industry. Shailene Woodley (“The Fault in Our Stars,” “Big Little Lies”) helps bolster this as Keith’s wife Caroline, giving an exceptionally nuanced performance that both supports Keith’s ambitions while also showcasing the dangers of his crusade.
With a score from Will Bates (“Unbelievable,” “Mayfair Witches”) that’s clearly aping Reznor and Ross’s work on the 2011 Facebook drama, a script from Lauren Schuker Blum (“Orange is the New Black”) and Rebecca Angelo (“Orange is the New Black”) full of foul mouthed rapid fire dialogue, and based on a book by the same author, it’s clear that director Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”) and his team are aiming to ape “The Social Network”, but the blanket of the COVID-19 pandemic on this story ends up creating a far more interesting layer over everything. It’s clearly a tale of people isolating and feeling togetherness through the internet, and the way that Blum and Angelo zero in on this through the fictionalized parts of the tale is genius. While these specific versions are made up, people such as Jenny, Riri, Harmony, and Marcos certainly existed, and the film’s ability to tell the story of the squeeze not just through Keith and the hedge fund bros, but by showing the effects on real people playing the market is exceptionally smart. It's a touch that makes it far more than just a wannabe of this genre, both in that human level and also in how bluntly it showcases the power of the little guy.
This isolation also adds a coldness with the film’s color palette and cinematography. It's a carryover from the period of time that will likely not work for some give how starkly it can remind of those isolating times. The film also does not benefit from its timeliness, given that much of the story is still playing out, leading to it feeling as though it ends just as it begins, leaving the juiciest results to be wrapped up simply via ending “where are they now” text.
“Dumb Money” is certainly anything but the first half of its title, but the rush to get it into theatres prevents the film from fully exploring the scope of its material, leaving it feeling like a really good example of a tale that could’ve been really great. Regardless of that though, it's still extremely compelling and packed with an excellent cast led by a commanding and understated Dano and a script that thrives when focusing on the little guys in this stranger-than-fiction David v. Goliath tale. 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment