Finally! 'Dumb Money' Is A Movie Of The Moment
#241: "Dumb Money," "A Haunting In Venice," "Waking Ned Devine," "Celeste and Jesse Forever"
Edition 241:
Hey movie lovers!
As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word!
This week: Remember that Gamestop meme stock thing from a few years back? Now there’s a star-studded movie about it. And there’s another Agatha Christie movie that’s just like the last two. Luckily, I’ve got some good streaming movies on tap for you! In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” Nick Cage does comedy for A24.
Dumb Money
At the lightspeed pace of news these days, the Gamestop stock drama feels like it could’ve happened 20 years ago. Yet the movie about it, Dumb Money, is an absolutely perfect time capsule of the year 2021.
Everything was still mostly shut down, vaccines weren’t yet widely available, and everybody’s collective cabin fever had reached, well, a fever pitch. The movie doesn’t hit on this, but just to remind you of the nation’s collective frame of mind, its primary events take place just two weeks after a very eventful January 6th. In other words, anarchy was in the air.
Of course, you remember. I don’t need to recap the plot. That’s exactly what makes this movie so cool. Rarely do we see such recent history reflected on the big screen like this. As I’ve mentioned before, most of our great filmmakers only make period pieces these days, so they don’t have to deal with modern politics or technology. Dumb Money takes these issues head-on. In another 20 years if I wanted to describe for someone what 2021 was like, this movie will do far more to explain it than any news clips or history books ever could.
That line of thinking is somewhat dangerous, because this story isn’t told objectively. It’s a social satire purposely punching up toward the hedge fund billionaires — who are presented as cartoonishly pompous and heartless — but of all the possible movie villains, these guys probably rank in the top five most unanimous (Nazis, zombies, mob guys with face tattoos and a Russian accent, etc.). Our protagonist, a joe schmoe who promoted the stock on Twitch, YouTube and Reddit under the name Roaring Kitty, is presented as nothing more than a humble, conscientious crusader against the uber-rich. There’s no nuance in who we’re rooting for.
Still, even if all of the characters and events aren’t 100% accurate, Dumb Money does a great job capturing the animating spirit of the times. The working class feel like they’re toiling like ants in an ant hill while billionaires point and laugh and tap on the glass. The schmoes express this on the internet, and this movie gets the closest as any TV or movie ever has to expressing the chaotic, overwhelming sensation of being online. Yes it’s fart jokes and abuse but at the very same time it’s also observation and knowledge that could change the world, and the Gamestop saga is one instance where all those elements combined.
As a movie, the construction is kind of like a mosaic. The story is told from no less than a half dozen perspectives, all contributing to the central thesis. There isn’t too much time spent giving characters depth, so it’s helpful that each one is played by a world class actor:
Paul Dano is dynamite as Roaring Kitty. The billionaires are Seth Rogan, Nick Offerman and Vincent D'Onofrio. The Robinhood CEO is Sebastian Stan. Kitty’s wife is Shailene Woodley. Anthony Ramos and America Ferrera are retail investors. Even a throwaway part like the Gamestop store manager is played by Dane DeHaan (crazy how far his star has fallen). Pete Davidson plays Pete Davidson, like he does in literally everything, but in small small doses here he’s funny. That’s a ton of talent on screen.
I’m not surprised by The Big Short-style approach to funny satire when telling a class war story like this one. I’m not even that surprised that the movie was consistently funny. But I’m very surprised by just how effectively the movie — which as I’ve described it is very external and entertaining — built toward a climax that left me tearing up. It’s a manipulative moment, absolutely, but I fell for it hard.
For me, that validated all of the storytelling decisions that led up to it and made this one of my current top 10 movies of the year. When I look at that short list, it doesn’t surprise me to see five movies set in the present (over-representing the smaller percentage of total present day movies made). That of-the-moment quality gives this movie both an energy and an edge that the soft focus past could never hope to achieve. I hope to see more projects that effectively grapple with these strange strange times we live in.
Something New
A Haunting In Venice (Theaters): Most people probably recognize Kenneth Branagh from his parts in Christopher Nolan movies, but may not realize his directorial hands have touched everything from Thor to live-action Cinderella and even Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. I’ve always considered his films to be, as the kids might say….mid. He’s not untalented, but his movies lack ambition to be anything special — even 2021’s awards movie Belfast. By taking on a trio of Agatha Christie movies, material that has been adapted several times in the past, without bringing anything particularly new or fresh, the result is uninspiring.
A whodunit mystery is dependent upon the strength of its ensemble cast, and it’s telling that the principals have been downgraded in each successive installment. Branagh’s Hercule Poirot — whose mustache I have to imagine was the motivation to make these movies in the first place — was surrounded by no less than Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Odom Jr. and Daisy Ridley in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express. This time around it’s Michelle Yeoh (the best part of the movie), Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and then maybe a few faces you recognize from TV. Even then, Fey and Dornan are to my eye incredibly miscast.
This time around, the gang of suspects is trapped inside a palazzo in Venice. It’s supposedly haunted, allowing the movie to use the language of horror without actually ever trying to be scary (adding to the long list of movies in the past year or two that are supposedly horror without ever attempting a fright).
What happens is what always happens in these stories, and the familiar whodunit beats are abided by so faithfully that the only compliment I can give the movie is how easily one can go along the ride. I can’t even conjure enough enthusiasm to dislike it. I’ll settle for forgetting it in a week or two.
Something Old
Waking Ned Devine (1998, Hulu): Hat tip to loyal reader Smith on the suggestion here, for a movie I really enjoyed and certainly never would’ve heard of otherwise. Set in a remote village in Ireland, two old lads realize that someone in their town has won the lottery and attempt to impersonate him to claim the prize. Wait…rolling hills of Ireland…remote village…a movie about the friendship between two older men…I know what you’re thinking.
This movie is basically The Banshees of Inisherin on Ambien. It’s slapsticky humor mixed with warm sentimentality, and every character in the movie essentially has a good heart and good intentions. Plus, the more I think about it, you just never really see comedies starring older people. It’s legitimately funny and heart-warming and I recommend it highly to all those people who replied to my newsletter last fall to tell me they HATED Banshees. Well, here’s your antidote.
Something to Stream
Celeste and Jesse Forever (Hulu): Back in 2012, Andy Samberg was still just that guy from the SNL music videos and Rashida Jones was the girl from “The Office” and “Parks and Rec,” but they paired for an unusual sort of rom-com about a couple getting a divorce trying to maintain their friendship as they begin dating other people. That premise may not sound too enticing, but really the movie shines as a slice of life look at 30-somethings in Los Angeles after the preprepared version of their life has come and gone.
It’s not Hallmark-y, and although it is sort of a cookie cutter plot in the big picture each scene has life and energy because of the talent on screen. The baseline requirement for rom-coms is met, as Samberg and Jones have great chemistry, and there’s a fun mix of characters around them: Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts, Chris Messina, and Ari Graynor. I won’t hype it up beyond being a 90-minute streamer but it was a fun one to discover this week.
Trailer Watch: Dream Scenario
I heard this movie described ungenerously as Nick Cage’s “second thought experiment movie” with A24. That’s fine, I really liked Pig. But if you consider Adaptation, Face/Off and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, you could make a pretty strong case that Cage’s entire career is a thought experiment (*hits blunt thoughtfully*).
What’s different about this movie is it appears to be a comedy, about a man who becomes an overnight celebrity when he suddenly starts appearing in every single person’s dreams. Unfortunate souls who haven’t seen Raising Arizona may not realize that Cage can be really funny, and this movie just off-key enough to potentially be capable of that A24 fairy dust. It’s got my attention.