COMEDY Directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) Dumb Money is a lickety-split entertainment about grassroots investors triumphing over financiers and fat cats—it's as if Sylvester Stallone had directed The Wolf of Wall Street. In a nutshell, during the COVID pandemic, millions of run-of-the-mill Americans—many of them based in a Reddit community—bought stock in a videogame retailer called GameStop. They were urged on by Keith “Roaring Kitty” Gill (Paul Dano), a gonzo YouTube analyst who championed GameStop’s value even as major hedge-funders were shorting its stock and hoping to make a mint betting the company would sink. Instead the stock shot up and up, peaking at a whopping $483 and forcing Melvin Capital, headed by hedge-funder Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen), out of business. Gill, meanwhile, held on to his enormous GameStop portfolio—even after the bubble finally burst, he was worth a reported $34 million.
Money skillfully—gleefully—covers a lot of ground and a lot of characters, from a (fictional) GameStop investing nurse (America Ferrera) to Citadel founder Ken Griffin (Nick Offerman), a man so rich he can watch fortunes disappear with an odd fish-eyed gaze of bemusement. Dano plays Gill with an almost saintly integrity. If you framed his pale face in a wimple, he'd make a fine Mother Superior. What's surprising is that, while you root for Gill, you feel a twinge of pity for Rogen's Plotkin as he tallies up the billions he’s lost. Little men become big, big men become little. In capitalism, it happens. (In limited release, R)
ROM-COM Season 3 of this adorable British series finds Jessie (Rose Matafeo) no longer coupled with movie star Tom (Nikesh Patel). But after the briefest of encounters at a wedding, they each begin flirting with the idea that they’re meant for each other after all. Or are they? For one thing, Tom has a fiancée, and Jessie slowly realizes that her life, despite its humdrum messiness and lack of glamour, promises its own kind of fulfillment—just one without the glow of starlight. The wrap-up is touching. (Launches Sept. 28)
Mick Jagger, 80, leads the band in a busted-heart kick of a single that lands with a youthful, blistering sting.
This love anthem begins with a twinkling gentleness, then builds to the glowing passion of a supernova. Surrender!
A moving duet of regret that has some of the forlorn, foggy nostalgia of Lana Del Rey.
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