Star Cast: Paul Dano, America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, Seth Rogen, Dane DeHaan
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Director: Craig Gillespie
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What’s Bad: It could’ve shown more, but, of course, the corporates wouldn’t allow it
Loo Break: Don’t even think about it!
Watch or Not?: Even if you’re not aware of what happened with GameStop, watch this to know & not the Netflix documentary
Language: English
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
User Rating:
The world is stuck at home while suffering a pandemic, but we have a small-time financial analyst who believes the biggies on Wall Street aren’t doing their best to draw their focus on essential shares. The story is about Keith Gill aka ‘Roaring Kitty’ (Paul Dano), an arcane Redditor who is set to convince the world that there’s something in GameStop’s shares (a struggling, in-loss video game chain in the US) and why everyone should invest in it as much as they can.
Starting his YouTube career by getting trolled, he continues his struggle of convincing by showcasing his balance sheet on the video-sharing platform, making it public. His perspective of how big hedge funders were short-selling (when a trader bets on the decline of a business) to put an end to GameStop connects with a huge group of Redditors & other people on the internet on a vast level. This started a revolution that brought Wall Street to its knees, turning Roaring Kitty’s $53,000 investment into $50 million.
Yes, I wasn’t a part of the whole GME phenomenon, but I’ve been a part of WallStreetBets to witness the chaos that happened during the time. For those unaware, it’s the story of how some netizens turned into Apes (stock investors who stay together holding the shares to increase their value), followed the King-Kong i.e. ‘Roaring Kitty’ who started it all (advised everyone to buy GameStop’s stock), became diamond hands (who hold the shares without selling them for profits) and dented the rich brats’ business at the Wall Street who were betting against the stock by short-selling it bringing them down on their knees.
Netflix’s documentary on the same topic failed to highlight many vital points just to present a particular picture of how the Apes were not on the right side of the whole thing. But Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo’s writing based on Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network covers the side of Apes way better than the Netflix documentary. Yes, still, there are a lot of things that went missing from the film, too, but we are totally aware of how the corporate world works.
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Paul Dano has played the second best ‘Roaring Kitty’ post the man Keith Gill Himself. He delivers a believable performance, establishing the right amount of connection with the viewers who will look for ‘Deep F*cking Value’ in him.
America Ferrera is subtle and robust as Jennifer, who religiously follows Keith to stay in till he’s in. Pete Davidson, as Keith’s brother, is just Pete being Pete. You’ll understand why he’s the perfect person to cast once you watch the film. The legendary ‘Ron Swanson’ Nick Offerman is wasted as Ken Griffin, but that was expected because how much can you even talk about Citadel’s SEO without getting into trouble?
Dane DeHaan & Anthony Ramos are brilliant as GameStop’s employees, with the former being a refined ‘rulebook’ boss and the latter his c*cky, at-the-face employee. Their track is one of the most entree things throughout. Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley & Seth Rogen deliver what’s expected from them, and it’s not too much.
Craig Gillespie, the mind behind a very beautiful I, Tonya, serves yet another meaningful, gripping story with almost everything going in its favor. He sails the ship, narrating everything like he was a part of the GME phenomenon. Keeping sensitive things in mind, he rarely tries to whitewash anything in the story.
Will Bates’ (The Voyeurs, I Origins) soundtrack comprises mainly of pop-hits like Cardi B’s WAP, Darko’s 21, Megan Thee Stallion‘s Savage (ft. Anthony Ramos’ hilarious dance sequence), Kendrick Lamar‘s Humble & more serving just the proper purpose of lifting the scenes. The BGM is apt and never goes on the board.
All said and done, this is a brilliant attempt by Craig Gillespie at portraying the side of the story that matters, ending at a perfect note revealing how this is far from over and is just the start of a revolution by Apes like us.
Three and a half stars!
Dumb Money released on 13 October, 2023.
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