Makes perfect cents
Back in 2017, writer-director Craig Gillespie turned the life of a disgraced figure skater into an insightful sports drama, a riotous crime caper and a mockumentary, which survived the inevitable comparisons with This Is Spinal Tap.
His latest true story isn't as memorable as the Oscar-winning I, Tonya but, in a way, it's just as impressive.
Here, his unpromising subject is retail stock trading and the relatively new phenomenon of amateur investors swapping tips online. Gillespie not only makes it easy to follow but funny and rather exciting too. Paul Dano plays self-confessed nerd Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, an insurance company worker who presents an online investment show from his basement.
Keith, with the support of his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley), has just invested the bulk of their life savings on shares in GameStop, an ailing American video game chain store.
As it seems destined to go the way of Blockbuster Video, hedge fund managers have been 'shorting' the stock, bidding down its share price by betting huge sums on the business failing.
Keith knows that if enough of his viewers follow his lead, the lowly share price will rocket, they'll reap the rewards, and billionaire hedge fund bosses will be in dire straits.
It works. In January 2021, the stock rockets from $3.85 to $348 and Keith is suddenly worth $22million on paper. Now, it's a case of who will blink first.
Gillespie keeps us rooting for the underdog investors, from a GameStop worker (Anthony Ramos) and a nurse (America Ferrero) to a pair of heavily indebted students (Myhdla Herrold and Talia Ryder).
Then there are the Wall Street billionaires (Seth Rogen, Vincent D'Onofrio and Nick Offerman) who watch in disbelief as Roaring Kitty takes his claws to their fortunes.
For a few delicious weeks, the business channels were the funniest thing on TV.
Roaring Kitty takes his claws to Wall Street billionaires’ fortunes