Dumb Money

Dumb Money by Craig Gillespie

So, it is the Pandemic and I’m a key worker. Shielding my mum who is in the extremely vulnerable category, Dad and I are doing our best when I stop working from home to minimise the risk to her, him driving me to and from work. You may have heard of many like me, you may have been on the street and clapped for me. Wouldn’t have seen you, if I had, I would have screamed at you to get the fuck indoors and stop being pricks.

It is the 25th of September as I write this. At 10:37 this morning I am unemployed. I had an interview; it was for HMV. a retail store, potentially the next GameStop.

I did not get the job.

Dumb money is the story of a game stop. The tale of how Keith Gill as a sort of George Bailey of the story can rally a whole sector of disenfranchised speculating blue-collar investors and use GameStop to challenge the hierarchical powers of Wall Street brokers. It runs an ensemble set of narratives of the fat cats against the industrious, debt-suffering folk and does it with humour and compassion.

There is a level where the film, removed from the reality of what happened, is largely a fairly slack happy scrappy comedy, the interplay with Keith and his brother is pretty much a book Kevin Smith, frustrated parents and bereavement being put front and centre, while Keiths feeling the pressure to support his young family and choose between a cause and a job. It’s heartwarming with a sense of wit and knowing how to show not tell. But it’s a film of archetypes as the story is in the plot, with enough incentive to care.

Our fat cats are not exactly the overlords one would expect, they twirl a Tasche much like Dastardly and mutely, Seth Rogen’s Gabe Plotkin seems to be more buffoon than a billionaire with the line ‘the wine collection isn’t that big’. The hardest of the good guys seems to be the college lesbian couple who deride their tuition fees while spending each lecture they are accruing these debts twat chatting each other and being ‘very’ it’s hard to empathise with the notion of struggle. Suspect their flatmate could have done without them too

But the film is funny as fuck. The biggest twist to me was still how the Robin Hood company seemed to cater to the rich so easily. Would stress it’s not that much of a spoiler given tis all public record, but for me, the film can drop info dumps of commerce while navigating momentum is a strength that can’t be denied.

Can’t help but feel the film is a panto of hat concurred, it’s so built into its black-and-white hat agenda,

The two characters I wanted to see win so much more were Marcos the game SOP staffer and Jennifer a hospital nurse. They of everyone were at the sharp end. Worked in the game station, the UK equivalent, and we bought and sold second-hand. We had an enjoyable time. Pure Kevin Smith shows stuff. Marcos gets no respect even being a major shareholder. But Jennifer…

Well not everyone was a winner in the little team, and the film gives that impact a short shrift, a cursory nod that deserved more.  

So, it’s a feel-good film for a time when everyone has some punch to navigate. Would say the best thing to do in regard to the film, due to the writers’ strike being over, but the actors’ strike ongoing… pirated the shit out of it and vote for it in all the awards you can everywhere. Letterbox, IMDb. Mtv. but don’t give a cent. The house always wins. So, laugh as it burns occasionally