“Dumb Money” is a term used by institutional investors on Wall Street to refer to everyday retail investors who dare to invest for themselves. The movie with the same name follows Keith Gill better known as “Roaring Kitty” or “Deep F*&%#ing Value” and a group of fellow retail traders as they take the “smart” money head on.
Set during the height of the COVID pandemic, lockdowns, masks, and stimulus payments all play a part as well as the purchase of necessities and Robinhood accounts.
When we meet Gill, he is a financial analyst for Mass. Mutual and part-time youtuber trying to navigate the changed world, personal issues and starting a family. He is already invested in GameStop, but unable to convince his stockbroker friend Briggsy that it is undervalued, he heads to the internet to defend his $53,000 investment in GME. (This investment is his family’s entire life savings.)
Throughout the story we run into Keith’s brother, Kevin, who is generally a jerk, even trolling his brother’s GME posts online. But Pete Davidson plays the role perfectly and brings a lot of laughs a long with it.
We’re also quick to meet Keith’s anonymous supporters, college students Riri and Harmoney both with six-figure student loan debt, Jenny, a nurse and single mother of two, and Marcus, a GameStop employee, who all stumble upon his posts or videos and dive in with what little cash they have.
Then there’s Gabe Plotkin, the CEO of Melvin Capital, who for the better part of a year became public enemy No. 1 for 8 to 14 million angry r/WallStreetBets users on Reddit. Plotkin is experiencing a very different pandemic from our other characters. His main COVID-related concern is that he’s been unable to get demolition started on a neighboring mansion, so he can construct a tennis court. We see plenty of examples like this highlighting the socioeconomic disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.
GameStop begins to track upward, and all of our characters double down on their positions. Plotkin shorts 600,000 more shares. Gill rolls his profits into more GameStop, and our supporting characters invest any money they can get their hands on back into GameStop.
As the ticker price climbs higher and higher, the institutions take notice. Access to WallStreetBets is blocked, and our retail traders can’t tell if “Kitty” is still holding onto his now exorbitantly large profits. This is where we start to see how the big players protect themselves and are introduced to the more technical and economic aspects of the short squeeze, which holds some of the most interesting information the film has to offer.
The music choices throughout the film are interesting, which leads to it feeling more like a modern dramedy than a finance movie à la “The Big Short.”
The use of contemporary memes, tiktoks and news footage helps illustrate how viral this became in some online circles and the business world. But it does lean on these items too hard, which gives it a feeling of being “normie” friendly for people who watched these events unfold live and can also leave to the story feeling interrupted at times, which is less than ideal.
The movie does make sure to hit on all the key events that took place, and Pete Davidson’s portrayal of “that one guy’s sh&*^y brother” makes it very relatable for anyone who grew up in a small or working-class neighborhood. The combination of these makes some of the other creative liberties easier to look past.
All in all, “Dumb Money” presents a generally comedic atmosphere that will leave the finance enthusiast informed and comedy enthusiast happy. But if you’re more partial to one of these genres in particular it might tread the middle too carefully for your liking.