At The Movies: Cheer the underdogs on in Dumb Money and Ride Above

Dumb Money (M18)

104 minutes, opens on Thursday
3 stars

The story: In early 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, an online community of ragtag amateur investors turned the beleaguered video game retailer GameStop into America’s hottest stock and short-squeezed the hedge funds that were betting against the company. Wall Street was upended.

A degree in high finance is not a prerequisite for enjoying Dumb Money.

This Hollywood dramatisation of the “Gamestonk” phenomenon adapted from American writer Ben Mezrich’s 2021 non-fiction book The Antisocial Network is a simple class-warfare comedy.

An affable Paul Dano leads the teeming ensemble as YouTube personality Roaring Kitty, real name Keith Gill, who advocated for GameStop on his videocast filmed from the basement of his home in Massachusetts. 

He sinks his life savings into the stock, for no other reason than “I like the stock”, triggering a buying frenzy among his followers across the country.

A quartet of them are a nurse (America Ferrera), a GameStop employee (Anthony Ramos) and two college students (Talia Ryder and Myha’la Herrold).

They have debts and mortgages.

At the opposite end of the stratum are the hedge-fund fat cats played by Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio and Sebastian Stan.

They get their comeuppance, losing billions, while the derided “dumb money” – what they call the everyday traders – get wealthy as the valuation rockets.

Australian director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, 2017) mimics the headiness with a barrage of Reddit threads, memes, vulgarities and hip-hop tracks.

His populist jaunt allows no pause for comparisons with Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2015), which was a smarter takedown of capitalism.

Two-and-a-half years on, GameStop is still struggling, and the system is still rigged. But for an hour or so, the little people can jubilate in their historic moment of collective power.

Hot take: This animated “eat the rich” farce is entertainment for the current climate of discontent, right on the money.

Ride Above (PG)

110 minutes, opens on Thursday
3 stars

The story: A teenage girl born in her parents’ racing stables in Normandy, France, has dreams of someday becoming a jockey that are shattered by a debilitating injury.

“Tearjerker” is a word to make toes curl.

But the French family drama Ride Above is an uplifting one in the best, most honest way, without schmaltz.

A succession of bright young actresses play Zoe across her 15 years growing up surrounded by horses and bonding with them.

Carmen Kassovitz takes over the role after an agonising accident leaves her an embittered paraplegic, flailing against the world.

Pio Marmai and Melanie Laurent lend unwearying support as the parents with troubles of their own: Their American investor (Danny Huston) is impatient for their prized mares to start winning races. They are on the verge of losing their land, their livelihood, and the increasingly despondent Zoe.

The excellent performances create an emotive picture of a loving family in crisis that overrides the predictable courage-in-adversity story, as a stable hand – actor Kacey Mottet Klein, also splendid – helps Zoe return to the saddle and fulfil her destiny.

Her climactic grand prix in the midst of a blizzard is thrilling.

Director Christian Duguay featured an Olympian equestrian in the biopic Jappeloup (2013) and a mountain dog in Belle & Sebastian: The Adventure Continues (2015).

His adaptation of the 2012 French children’s novel Tempete Au Haras by Christophe Donner – dubbed in English for the benefit of the younger audience – continues the nurturing connection between man and animal, while faithfully depicting the struggles of the disabled through the production’s collaboration with the APF France Handicap association.

Hot take: Heartstrings will be pulled by the sincere and well-acted melodrama.