Summary
Dumb Money serves as a time capsule of the early 2020s, capturing the moods, cultural quirks, and aesthetic selections of the current second. The movie highlights the absurdity of our lives by way of satire, showcasing the wealth redistribution story sparked by an app named Robinhood and the affect of web celebrities on politics, enterprise, and media. Dumb Money requires a wage hole revolution, urging viewers to re-examine their roles, unite, talk, and arrange for change, reminding us that actual success lies in consideration to element, collective motion, and unwavering dedication.
If you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s daring meta-comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street, you’re in all probability conversant in the defective methods the American system is ready as much as wager in opposition to the common citizen. Even for a bombastic Hollywood movie full of pressed tablets and blatant hedonism, there was nonetheless a cautionary undertone that pervades the rags-to-riches-to-rags storyline of Jordan Belfort. For a person comfortably accustomed to yachts and mansions, being relegated to public talking appeared like a specifically designed place in hell for the once-millionaire.
The traces aren’t drawn as neatly within the latest version of the Wall Street film. In Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money, the nice guys disappear off the face of the earth, and the dangerous guys, in response to Jesse Pound at CNBC, “purchase a controlling curiosity within the Charlotte Hornets NBA Franchise.” For many causes, the David vs. Goliath story comparisons hardly really feel acceptable other than character descriptions.
Dumb Money follows Paul Dano’s Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, aka DeepF*ckingValue, as he pits himself in opposition to Seth Rogen’s Gabe Plotkin and the gaggle of billionaire overlords who deal with Wall Street like blackjack. Weaponized along with his YouTube channel and the web calvary of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, Gill upends Plotkin’s hedge fund Melvin Capital by short-squeezing GameStop’s inventory. As aforementioned, nonetheless, the dividing traces aren’t all the time clearly outlined.
Within the complexities and problems, Dumb Money finds its attraction and social worth. It’s not as involved with creating good guys and dangerous guys as a lot because it desires to ship a message of concerted collectivism and social unrest whereas teasing an imminent revolution.
Time Capsule of the Early 2020s
Sony Pictures
Unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, which covers occasions from the previous, Dumb Money excels as a rumination on the current. Usually, it takes us 5 to 10 years to really perceive the consequences of a groundbreaking cultural phenomenon. Rarely will we see a movie that paperwork our actuality in real-time.
Decades into the longer term, we’ll look again on Dumb Money as a pertinent time capsule of the early 2020s, all of its moods, cultural quirks, and aesthetic selections.
The movie depends closely on the cultural iconography we most strongly affiliate with the current to assist create a resonance with everybody at this time. The prevalence of face masks clearly recollects the start levels of the pandemic, together with the unknowns and uncertainties that bombarded society. The frenetic flurry of TikTok movies and Roaring Kitty’s pixelated YouTube movies remind us of our tethering to social media and on-line areas.
Along with latest horror movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) and Talk to Me (2022), this film confronts our love-hate relationship with our cell telephones by cleverly tying it into the movie’s DNA. The music video soundtracking and modifying model, mixed with the multitude of character plotlines, hints at notions of a metaverse whereas emphasizing how every part beforehand talked about retains us all related.
Aside from all of the cultural imagery, Dumb Money additionally captures the absurdity of our lives in an enthralling instance of satire. Admittedly, for the reason that election of the person in orange, our lives have been nothing wanting absurd. Every different week, the information cycles are full of satirical movies and absurd tales that really feel handwritten for Saturday Night Live. A wealth redistribution story of Robin Hood proportions sparked by an app known as… Robinhood (!?). It doesn’t get a lot better than that, people.
And all this discuss COVID, TikTok dances, and, sure, Mr. Trump himself, is that politics, enterprise, and media have develop into subjected to the affect of the web superstar, that our lemming mindset continues to be keen to run off a cliff if there’s a snug padding of $100,000 ready on the backside.
Related: Dumb Money Ending, Explained
Through all of the satirical jest, nonetheless, we discover Gillespie’s sentimentality, a valiant effort at offering a impolite awakening meant to rally the troops.
Wage Gap Revolution
Sony Pictures
Although Dumb Money presents a considerate composition of the place we at the moment are, it serves as a robust message that bodes for a hopeful future. At the center of this underdog story is a name for a wage hole revolution.
In an interview with Deadline, Gillespie shares, “[t] his is in regards to the everyman and on the coronary heart of that’s Keith Gill and … the frustration within the nation about what’s occurring with this wealth disparity.” Gillespie highlights a latest improvement from our present decade: the overwhelming results of wealth inequality and the way the coronavirus pandemic solely exacerbated these results.
Dumb Money is the director’s name to motion, a daring request to re-examine the roles we exhibit in our lives and the modifications we will enact if we unify, talk, and arrange. Despite the movie not having an ideal Hollywood ending, it exclaims there may be extra to perform and that that is merely one domino in a collection to fall.
Related: These Are the Best Revolutions Depicted on Film
The movie spells out the system for achievement. Gill’s consideration to element helped him snuff out the GameStop quick, reminding us that the solutions are often mendacity in plain sight. His skill to harness a web based group proves that collective motion is our strongest instrument. And his relentlessness to “maintain the road” to dedicate himself to this unreachable aim is what enacts actual change ultimately.
When we use Dumb Money as a mirrored image on our lives at this time, Gillespie hopes it conjures up greater than only a snigger or a smile. It invitations us to view this information headline as extra than simply one other put up in your doomscroll, to take a look at this story as a stepping stone in the direction of not simply upending a hedge fund however upending the system that continues to bail them out time and time once more.
First seem at Why Dumb Money Is Actually Pretty Smart
