A very human hedge fund story
How the little guy took on the hedge fund billionaires
Dumb Money (R, 105 mins) In cinemas now Directed by Craig Gillespie Review by Jen Shieff
Based on a 2021 true story, Dumb Money is a very lively account of how hedge fund managers effectively shut out the retail trader, too small and supposedly stupid for them to consider even for a moment, and how one such retail trader, Keith Gill (Paul Dano), influenced the stock market by using a large following achieved through Reddit and YouTube to make a fortune and in the process brought some billionaire hedge-fund owners and managers such as Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) to their knees.
Who’s dumb now?
Keith Gill was off the radar for the likes of Gabe Plotkin, ironically not the brightest button in the box and yet richer than rich, but Keith Gill was about to make his presence felt in Gabe Plotkin’s world, big-time.
Watch out Goliath, here comes David.
Branding himself Roaring Kitty and wearing a red bandanna and kitten print T-shirt, glass of booze nearby, Keith Gill goes live, seated at his basement keyboard, to talk, in a humorous yet humble, unassuming and truthful way about one stock: GameStop, a video game store, which he’d painstakingly researched and had invested in, despite its steadily decreasing stock market price.
Director Craig Gillespie, using clips of interviews, real ones from CNN and Fox and fictionalised ones as well, an ideal technique for the fractured filming required during Covid-19 lockdown, shows how in 2021, billionaire hedge-fund managers targeted GameStop stock as suitable for being shorted, betting that it would continue to fall, reaping massive profit for their hedge-funds, but, problematically for them, the stock went up, just as Keith Gill had predicted.
If the way hedge funds work isn’t explained fully enough, that’s fine as the film isn’t meant to be a tutorial and anyway, there’s a well-made three-episode documentary about the GameStop story on Netflix called Eat the Rich that spells it out.
Keith Gill’s quirky humour plus a series of appealing personal insights into the impact of the rise and rise of GameStop’s stock on small investors provide a recipe for a thoroughly enjoyable film, with a suitably racy screenplay by Lauren Schuker and Rebecca Angelo.
They send up the hedge fund lot while sympathetically showing retail traders, frightened to invest, excited to see how far their stock would climb, desperate to sell at the right time, all of them starting off in the red, almost all ending up solvent, some doing very well indeed.
There’s comedy, poignancy and a bit of dramatic tension between Keith and his brother Kevin (Pete Davidson), suitable depth in the relationship between Keith and his loyal, admiring but slightly sceptical wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley), a couple of raunchy, indebted students (Myha’la Herrold and Talia Ryder) and a beautiful characterisation of single mum nurse Jennifer (America Ferrera).
Dumb Money is a relevant commentary on social media’s ability to influence human behaviour and a light-hearted look at smart stockmarket trading.
■ Highly recommended
The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupo qualifies for a free ticket to Dumb Money.