Review of reviews: ‘Dumb Money’ an irreverent underdog or crowd pleaser?

Dumb Money is based on the true story of regular people "who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop into the world's hottest company".

Craig Gillespie’s ‘Dumb Money’ was released earlier this month in the United States and reviewers have already dubbed it an “irreverent underdog movie”. Based on ‘The Antisocial Network’ by Ben Mezrich, this dramedy tells the true story of the GameStop short sellers squeezing hedge funds in 2021.

It is essentially the “fun retelling” of the “insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (videogame store) into the world's hottest company”, as Rotten Tomatoes describes it.

The film spanning slightly over 100 minutes, featuring Pete Davidson, America Ferrera, Paul Dano, Sebastian Stan, and Shailene Woodley, among others, has bagged a 7.1 IMDb rating.

Here is how top publications have reviewed Dumb Money:

CNN Entertainment: “Dumb Money” takes full advantage of its David-vs.-Goliath underpinnings to turn a tale of stocks and finance, a la “The Big Short” or “Too Big to Fail,” into a crowd-pleasing underdog story.

The New York Times: “Dumb Money,” an energetic, ingratiating dramatization of the GameStop stock craze of 2021, presents an interesting challenge for its screenwriters, who have to juggle two forms of jargon in fast-paced dialogue.

The Guardian: Director Craig Gillespie tackles the subject with a vigorous, ripped-from-the-headlines docufiction starring an affable Paul Dano as Keith Gill, AKA Roaring Kitty. There’s a lively bustle to Dumb Money, which successfully corrals a host of disparate supporting characters and parallel story strands.

BBC: Dumb Money is not as smart or skewering as it pretends to be – on-screen text at the end claims that Wall Street has permanently changed because of this financial blip – but it is funny, irreverent, and crowd-pleasing, with a kaleidoscope of likeable characters and actors.

GQ UK: Dumb Money is the first Covid era drama to get the pandemic right…. It draws attention to the fact that the cabin fever of COVID undoubtedly contributed to hundreds of people disappearing down a Reddit rabbit hole and buying shares in GameStop.