Static LIVE November 2023

THE MOVIE REVIEW
BY PAUL MARINO*
With his latest feature Dumb Money, Craig Gillespie's built upon the critical success of
his most recent films, 2017's “I, Tonya” and 2021's “Cruella”, both of which were nominated
for multiple Oscars, winning one each. Like those two movies, it is both serious and
tongue-in-cheek; but unlike those films, it's nuanced. Relatively complicated economic and
financial concepts are discussed with the same assumed understanding that one would
have regarding figure skating or fashion. That said, the picture is truly enjoyable, as
my wife Cindy, whose academic and professional careers were safely removed from Wall
Street, will attest. Both lead actor Paul Dano (Keith Gill, aka YouTuber Roaring Kitty)
and Pete Davidson (Keith's brother Kevin) turn in great comic performances.
Dumb Money - the derogative by which Wall Street elites refer to retail investors – is
about the real life GameStop short squeeze of early 2021 lead by Keith Gill. Despite my
contention that films are less about plot than the impact of a piece's themes on the
human condition, I, Paulie, would still argue hypocritically that it won't hurt to have
a deeper understanding of some of Dumb Money's economic ideas. In order to better
understand the GameStop short squeeze, first one must know what a
trading “short” is. One can play the market by purchasing instruments other than
specific companies' stocks. Shorting a stock is betting that company's stock price will
fall. One way to purchase a short is via a derivative. Basically, the price of the short
is negative 1 times (for example) the actual stock price, so as the stock itself, in the
case of Dumb Money, GameStop, drops in price, the short goes up. For example, imagine
that movie reviews by “Paul E. Coyote, Supergenius (stock ticker, PECS)” “fill you with the
urge to defecate”, and you want the company to go out of business. You purchase a share
of a Short of PECS when PECS stock price is $100. Then you sell the Short when PECS is
at $50. You make $50, and PECS investors lose that much. A short squeeze happens when
retail investors, aware of a large short position by Wall Street, buy that stock en masse
driving the price up, making money for themselves as individuals, while driving the
short down and costing the Wall, or at least some of its bricks, to collapse.
Dumb Money is a docudrama of how YouTube influencer Keith “Roaring Kitty” Gill lead
the 2021 GameStop short squeeze. Why, Roaring Kitty? Why in this era of streaming would
you invest in and live-stream promote a brick and mortar video game hardware, nonstreaming
software and accessory company? Why, Roaring Kitty, why GameStop? “I like the
stock!” Going online promoting investing in GameStop takes courage. Roaring Kitty is no
Cowardly Lion. He's going up against super-rich investors and hedge fund managers
shorting the stock like Mets' owner Steve Cohen, Ken Griffin and Gabe Plotkin (Vincent
D'Onofrio, Nick Offerman and Seth Rogan). Roaring Kitty's army of GameStop viewer/
investors includes Jennifer Campbell, Marcos the GameStop employee, and college students
Harmony and her girlfriend/roommate Riri who coin the online chant “Where's my pussy
at?” when they want Kitty to go online (America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, Talia Ryder and
Myha'la Herrold). Together they are the GameStop short squeeze, stealing from the rich
and giving to themselves, the poor, using, of course, the trading platform Robin Hood. The
Descendants and Divergent Series' Shailene Woodley is fantastic as Keith's calming
influence(r) and wife Caroline.
Dumb Money has a cool Epilogue Scene showing how things worked out for many of its
characters' real life counterparts. As of this writing, it's still in theaters, but unlike
the the GameStop short squeezers, it's yet to turn a profit. Maybe you can counterman
that. Who dunt love an underdog? “Where's my posse at?” And trust me, you needn't have a
math degree or 45 years experience in accountingand finance to love Dumb Money. “I like
the flick!” See you guys next month!
* Paul is the host for The Hub on Canal's monthly Art in the Form of Film series.
The Hub on Canal is a non-profit art gallery/collective in New Smyrna Beach FL.
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