Dumb Money* *Individual investors often derided as “dumb money” by Wall Street

Inspired by true events, Dumb Money* *Individual investors often derided as “dumb money” by Wall Street details the chaos that ensues after an amateur trader’s (Paul Dano’s Keith Gill) online antics raise Game Stop’s stock to insane levels. Filmmaker Craig Gillespie, armed with Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo’s screenplay, delivers a very, very hit-and-miss comedy that is, to increasingly distressing effect, more the latter than the former, as Gillespie delivers a frenetically-paced yet oddly uninvolving endeavor that’s overflowing with narrative threads of wildly varying quality – with, generally, only about half of the movie’s myriad of subplots able to make anything resembling a positive impact. (It’s difficult, for example, to work up much interest in or enthusiasm for the various billionaires who somehow find themselves wrapped up in Keith’s exploits.) It’s clear, as well, that Dumb Money* *Individual investors often derided as “dumb money” by Wall Street’s arms-length atmosphere is compounded by its tendency to get bogged down in impenetrable, uninvolving financial matters, thus ensuring, ultimately, that the movie is at its best when focused on the affable folks caught up in the whole scheme (eg college students, blue-collar workers, etc). By the time the downfall-fueled third act rolls around, which is as repetitive and tedious as one might’ve feared, Dumb Money* *Individual investors often derided as “dumb money” by Wall Street has cemented its place as a misfire that’s seemingly been designed to appeal solely to viewers interested in its esoteric subject matter.

** out of ****