PREMISE
The insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning video game retail store GameStop into the world’s hottest company.
THE GOOD STUFF
DANO- At this point, I’m unable to think of a single person in all of pop culture who may be as DRASTICALLY underrated in their field as Paul Dano is. I’ve raved about him in my BATMAN review, so I’ll dial that down here. I do feel that it’s important to mention that he kind of rarely does leading roles, and when he does, they’re in small-ish flicks (The good heart, Ruby sparks, love and mercy), and he hasn’t missed.
I suppose his character, Roaring Kitty is the main character here, given that it is his webstream for which the GameStop Short Squeeze was founded. However, there is so much other stuff going on, and there are so many other characters with so many famous faces that Kitty himself seems more of the conductor of the madness rather than the film’s central character. He is played to be a revolutionary voice in this film in the quietest way possible. Dano is a perfect fit for something like that.
AMERICA FERRERA- My goodness, has this been a banner year for America Ferrera. Just as she was in Barbie, her character (a nurse during the pandemic) is the story’s moral center. This character has the most to lose, and the character charges the hardest for the cause, even at her peril in some cases. This performance would be good enough to be a big breakthrough for somebody who wasn’t already in the game as long as Ferrera has been.
THE REST OF THE CAST- This is one of the better uses of a large ensemble cast that I’ve seen in a very long time. There are many notable faces playing very small roles at times, and each has their moment to get a good one-liner or to have a very notable scene that’s worth mentioning… well almost everyone.
THE BAD STUFF
ANTHONY RAMOS- Back when in the heights came out, I do remember quite a few interviews where Lin-Manuel Miranda would point out that he felt that Ramos was in line to be a tried and true “movie star”. Well, though I DO believe that to be the case, there isn’t much to show so far. His character in this film has the same demeanor and personality as pretty much every character that he’s played in a big-time movie that he’s been in.
Seriously, go watch a clip of transformers: rise of the beasts, and then watch a clip of this movie, and tell me it does not seem like he’s playing the same character under a wildly different circumstance.
And it’s a real shame, too, because his character takes the biggest hit from the 90-something-minute running time, all the while having the story that would have been the most interesting to show, given that the character is living in relative poverty. It pains me to say this the bathroom breaks of this film all involve his character being shown at length.
THE UGLY STUFF
No ugly things.
****************
Dumb Money is very fun. It gets straight to the point and has mostly excellent performances. Like the movie The Big Short once did, it does a really good job at explaining a complicated thing like what a financial short squeeze is and how events like that can cause massive financial ramifications for a lot of powerful people…and make it comedic, make it engaging, and have it be in a film which is wonderfully paced and acted.
DUMB MONEY is in theaters now
