Ryan S Rogers

Since the Gamestop saga started, I had found the whole thing fascinating. I had been someone that casually interacted with Wall Street Bets to see the memes and the yolos, but was never super far into that culture, so I really watched it all go down from the outside. After the fire had died down, I also looked on with a mix of horror and amazement at the way the whole thing morphed into a weird conspiracy cult (check out Dan Olsen's amazing video on that here).

Given all of that, I was a little disappointed with how the story was framed as just a movement for the little guy to try and screw over the hedge fund guys. The retail investors were unambiguously the 'good' guys, which plays to the detriment of the movie itself (side note, I'm fine with the hedge fund people being comic book villains because that's just true to real life).

There were too many characters that didn't have enough to do/say, and they all had pretty much the same motivations. I would have much preferred a focus on just one of the retail investors and how they were effected by the events of the story.

Paul Dano and Shailene Woodley do a great job with their roles. I think Dano captured very well Keith Gill's presence and demeanor. The rest of the performances felt pretty one-note.

Overall, it was a fine movie to watch on the airplane back to New York after a bad night's sleep. I would probably have a lot lower opinion of the piece if I saw it in the theaters.