Remember when a bunch of meme stocks tumbled the entire financial system for a bit? Pepperidge Farm remembers and so does Sony because it made a movie about. The trailer for Dumb Money dropped today and reveals the “true” story of how a bunch of people on Reddit blew up the stock market by investing in GameStop when Wall Street investors were betting against the company even surviving.
The film definitely has a The Big Short feel to it as we see a host of famous comedian-type people taking on roles of asshole investors and everyday human beings caught up in a movie about stocks and the economy. Paul Dano plays Keith Gill, the “mastermind” behind the entire GameStop stock investment idea that triggered a cavalcade of regular people to invest in the stock, skyrocketing it to heights it had never seen before and subsequently eliminating the fortunes of rich people here played by the likes of Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Offerman. You’ve also got Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, and Sebastian Stan showing up in the film, landing you squarely in that weird serious / comedic zone that Adam McKay pretty much created.
Of course, this movie isn’t coming from Acadamy Award-winning Adam McKay but from Craig Gillespie, whose best work is I, Tonya. That shows that he can handle “true stories,” but it’s a delicate balance when you’re making a film that’s part satirical, part real that even McKay struggles with. That’s especially true here where Reddit and memes are involved, and interpreting what happened as a giant joke could be a big issue. The Dumb Money trailer, however, does seem to play it well, so hopefully the film will too.
Dumb Money will release in theaters and tell its story of Reddit and GameStop stocks on September 22.
