In early 2021, a group of everyday people decided to turn the tables on the Wall Street elite by turning failing video game retailer GameStop (think EB Games, but worse) into a stock-market sensation. It all begins when nerdy YouTuber Keith Gill (Paul Dano) sinks his life savings into near-worthless GameStop stock and posts about it online. When this snowballs into a social media phenomenon, GameStop’s value quickly becomes inflated, with brutal consequences for several major hedge funds and their billionaire backers – who soon decide to fight back.

Directed by Australia’s Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), Dumb Money recounts this absurd true David versus Goliath tale in stylish and lively fashion thanks to its colourful cast of characters, not unlike The Big Short. Most crucially for any film about economics, however, it also manages to explain things in a way that even stock market illiterates can grasp.