Kritiken

For multiple reasons, the stock value of a video-game retailer briefly became a rallying cry for amateur American entrepreneurship, and Dumb Money is a great time capsule of that collective bit of insanity.

There is, perhaps, a little too much bouncing around between stories, and not all the plot threads land powerfully – Pete Davidson as Gill’s layabout brother doesn’t add much – but Gillespie makes elegant points without resorting to cartoon villainy.

With a brisk, biting comic tone and a nice line in righteous anger, Dumb Money skilfully picks up The Big Short’s baton for cinematic-economic takedowns.

What Dumb Money does very well is show that the GameStop stock story is more than just a meme for our times, but a first stone in the pond with a ripple effect that’s still a work in progress.

“Dumb Money” is better for not having too many speeches about the evils of capitalism. There’s an inferior version of this film that talks down to its audience or, worse, expects them to get heavily invested in its retail trading subculture. Gillespie smartly avoids those traps, keeping the dramedy fluid without resorting to melodrama.

In the end, “Dumb Money” wants us to believe a revolution was afoot , but it’s too low-key (even with “WAP” as an unofficial needle-drop anthem) to truly convince us, especially with how things played out. But in its thumbnail sketches simmering with risk, humor, and melancholy, illuminating a world of worsening disparities but spikier solidarity, it entertainingly takes stock.

Smart, playful, and perhaps efficient to a fault... Gillespie’s latest is an enraging David vs. Goliath, ripped-from-the-headlines tale that deserves to be seen to be believed.

To the credit of the filmmakers, “Dumb Money” has an entertainment-first vibe throughout and never feels like a financial lecture, thanks in large part to the cheeky script and the quality of the performances.

“Dumb Money” isn’t fully content to wonk out. It can’t just be an investment movie; it also has to be a domestic drama. That makes sense to the extent that the story concerns people’s livelihoods... The humanizing efforts are less inspired when “Dumb Money” falls back on sibling-rivalry tropes.

There’s nothing subtle about “Dumb Money,” nor should there be. It’s meant to arouse outrage against the bad guys and instill admiration for the underdogs. And despite the screenplay bandying about a blizzard of jargony financial terms... the broad contours of the narrative are easy enough to follow.

“Dumb Money,” touching on questions of the authority of personality and the importance of nonfinancial—even completely irrational—motives in the investment world, offers a gleeful romp through strange and treacherous territory that merits a closer, more careful look.

The surprise in “Dumb Money” isn’t Gillespie’s aforementioned aesthetic choices. We know from “I, Tonya,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” and even “Cruella” that he has a genuine cinematic eye. His movies will always be visually intriguing, regardless of the subject. The surprise is how this tale, for the life of it, cannot escape the melancholy of the pandemic.