Dumb Money, a film directed by Craig Gilliespie that is based on the true story of the GameStop stock phenomenon that struck during the COVID-19 epidemic in 2021, was released on September 29, 2023. This financial “David and Goliath” story stars Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Ramos, and America Ferrera as people affected by the Gamestop tight-squeeze stock rise. This film, written by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, was carefully paced for 104 minutes. The film falls into the “comedic documentary version of drama” genre.

This film portrays Paul Dano as Keith Gill, or “RoaringKitty”, a YouTuber in 2021 who would share his enthusiasm and faith in the GameStop stock. Keith Gill shares his stock spreadsheets in a reddit thread called “r/wallstreetbets,” where many stock redditors followed in his footsteps, causing the GameStop stock to rise tremendously, making the common people rich and making the rich lose millions of dollars an hour. Gabe Plotkin (played by Seth Rogan), Kenneth C. Griffin (played by Nick Offerman), and Steve Cohen (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) are part of hedge fund companies that make money off of taking small companies or stocks out of business. This film examines the GameStop short squeeze from a variety of points of view. The writing explains in a “for dummies” handbook-style way all the stock market vocabulary and situations, allowing even an inexperienced audience to follow along and have an enjoyable time.

The story being based on actual events in 2021 may seem like a bad move, as we see in many shows like “Brooklyn 99” and “The Morning Show” that when modern events such as COVID-19 are brought up, it brings the quality down. Although this raised my skepticism about the quality of the film, I was pleasantly surprised by how intriguing it was. By striking while the iron is hot, this film relived the excitement and shock that were surging through Reddit, Robinhood, and nearly every social media platform two years ago. This comedic drama contains lots of foul language and idiotic jokes, which is expected in a film starring Seth Rogan and Pete Davidson, but it can still make you crack a smile at the impudence of it all. The film leaves you on the edge of your seat as you are unsure of what happens next, very much like what the film is about—the stock market.

Overall, the film Dumb Money by Craig Gilliespie gets a 7/10. The movie has an enjoyable plot, but it is nothing very special. It is a good watch and should be seen at least once to check it off your list. Having comedy, suspense, and a resolved issue throughout the movie from different points of view is nothing like the movies in theaters recently.