Like The Big Short, Dumb Money injects comedy into a situation that should piss you off.

Score: 4/5

While I was very much alive and semi-aware of the nightmare of a financial collapse that took place in 2008, I was still too young to really come to full terms with how angry it should have made me feel. Dumb Money highlights another of these moments, but this time, I was dialed in. During the pandemic era, there wasn’t as much to pay attention to, but Gamestop’s stock explosion from normal everyday people screwing over the mega-rich? Yeah, that was something. How things turned out, though, felt like a rinse and repeat of what has happened so many times and likely will happen again and again as time goes on. The little guy always loses.

Dumb Money follows Paul Dano’s Keith Gill, one of the little guy investors who was instrumental in pushing for his fellow Reddit investors of Wall Street Bets to back Gamestop. The movie centers around him but includes various other retail investors (everyday people) to show the bigger picture of what this did for Americans across the board. The movie also shows CEOs and hedge fund managers, giving the perspective of what they lost or gained. The movie does a great job going back and forth between all of these people, but the crux of the story centers on Gill. For many of these investors, the movement lived or died based on him, saying, “If he’s in, I’m in.” The drama settles in how far this can go and how far someone can stay in this game of high-stakes gambling before the stakes are too high. This drama works for the most part, but due to the jumping around, it isn’t as strong as it could be.

Going this route works a bit better, though, when the ensemble is made up of many excellent actors. The combination of Vincent D’Onofrio, Nick Offerman, Seth Rogen, and Sebastian Stan playing the rich, morally bankrupt elite works so well. They are all great at playing people I just want to punch in the face. On the other end, you have America Ferrera’s Jenny, a nurse during the height of the pandemic trying to keep her head above water from debt. She represents the majority of us, people who try and ultimately get screwed by the top one percent and the government that coddles them.

Sprinkled throughout all of this serious subject matter is humor that keeps the rage of the situation slightly in check. The movie had me cheering on Gill as he fought the system, a true David versus Goliath moment. Yet, I wasn’t in a cheery mood even after Gill got a somewhat positive ending. I was angry that this type of crap still happens, that not enough of the mega-wealthy ever have to pay a price for constantly stealing and cheating systems in their favor. Dumb Money may be a comedy, but like The Big Short before it, this movie should propel you to find ways to stop these practices. Otherwise, we’ll see another of these movies in another decade or so.

Go see this movie and find ways to be a part of the solution. Positive movie recommendation / angry rant take over.