Sometimes movies die a quiet death at the box office for no good reason. Maybe the promotional budget was small (or non-existent) or maybe a much bigger title opened on the same Friday and the smaller movie got swallowed up. I believe even titles can have an affect; they either say too much or too little about the film in question.
I mentioned this in my Top Ten list this year regarding a little Canadian movie called “Blackberry,” which was the true story of the scruffy, ambitious young dudes who invented the Blackberry hand phone, only to be eaten alive by the iPhone some time later. I feel the same way about Dumb Money – a terrible title, doesn’t sound like a winner, and it fell through the cracks.
Like Blackberry, Dumb Money is based on a true story about a youngish guy who becomes obsessed with buying cheap five-dollar shares of GameStop stocks. The big Wall Street guys laughed at him—until, his love for the stock and for the idea of “common people” participating in the stock market caught on. On paper the dude and his viral outreach to regular people sent the stock soaring—these guys made millions on paper.
Now, maybe people weren’t interested in a movie that talks about shares and short sells and the like, but take it from a Market idiot like me- you don’t need to know anything going in to understand the point.
The point is, as is the case in so many movies, the David and Goliath vibe, the Rocky Vs. Apollo vibe. The lowly “retail stock” investor vs the guys who think they know better.
There are ups and downs and twists and turns, but the film was a fun watch. Paul Dano is perfect as the main character – the real guy. And the cast also boasts Seth Rogin, America Ferrera, Shailene Woodley and Pete Davidson – I like all of these actors.
So, yeah-now that you can stream most movies from your couch or phone with a few flicks of the switch, you can start the new year off with Dumb Money and Blackberry.