It’s a rare occurrence when you live through the events of a biopic and remember them clearly enough to say how accurate the film adaptation is.
Such is the case with Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money which tackled the, as in the words of the marketing of the movie itself, “the epic David vs. Goliath story” of people vs. hedge fund executives as in the case of the stock market turmoil of a couple years ago.
Before I get into the discussion on this, I just want to say, again, thank you to Regal Cinema’s Monday Mystery Movie for the opportunity to catch this before it’s mass release.
Dumb Money Review
It’s hard to accurately review this movie in truth because a lot of it is a very straight-laced retelling of the events intermixed with very good performances and some creative edits. But at the same time, the real story is so strange and the characters larger than life that it lends itself to film quite well.
All the while a lot of the movie, much like a lot of the story surrounding the widespread GameStop stock debacle, is relegated to memes and internet culture, which is shown through clever edits intermixing the footage of the real actors with the memes.
Honestly the intermixing of memes from the subreddit WallStreetBets, real-world news segments from Fox and CNN, and new footage of the actors in this dramatization in these memes creates an interesting and chaotic blend that peers perfectly into the viral age.
There’s not a single actor in this that gives a bad performance, even the ones without a ton of credits as a good actor to their name like Shailene Woodley shines with the material. But more than any, come awards season I see Paul Dano up for discussion for best actor.
The same goes for the likes of, and god help me for saying this, Seth Rogen for best supporting actor. Sebastian Stan, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, Clancy Brown, Anthony Ramos, Dane DeHaan, to nobody’s surprise they all are really damn good in this, the right amount of comedically inept and genuinely sincere.
Final Thoughts
There really isn’t that much to say, the movie is just really damn good and an accurate portrayal that gets the modern digital world without feeling alien to it.
My only real gripe with the movie is the ending doesn’t hit as hard as they’d want it to, which I get is accurate to the real event, but also it’s a movie, based on a book, based on a true story, a little cinematic exaggeration never hurt anybody.
Dumb Money is a very good movie, a solid 9/10, I want to say more, but honestly, just go see the movie, the hype does not lie.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
