The best thing Timoner does with the documentary is using the same language that drives its story: memes. From constantly cutting to clips from “Wolf of Wall Street” while images of rocketships, apes, and diamonds fill the screen, to TikToks, and more. This makes for a rather entertaining documentary that does manage to explain a rather complex topic — the stock market — in layman’s terms, without the need for Margot Robbie in a bathtub.
At its best, the film documents the 2021 GameStop stock squeeze, in which online retail traders successfully drove the stock price of the popular game store to increase nearly 30 times, and caused hedge funds to lose an incredible amount of money. The film explains how it happened, why, and also illustrates how much of a joke that “movement” really was, using their own meme language to prove it.
The problem is that Timoner doesn’t really do much with the documentary. Sure, she has plenty of interview footage with the likes of Anthony Scaramucci, Jordan Belfort, and more, and she does draw a connection between the GameStop stonks and the January 6th attempted coup, but doesn’t do much to show why those would be connected beyond just saying the internet can bring people together.
Likewise, the film attempts to paint the rise of crypto and NFTs as some sort of revolutionary act of defiance against the financial system, a platform for good that democratizes things and remains open when banks aren’t available, but fails to interrogate their effect on the environment or their fraudulent aspects.
This is an entertaining film about a timely topic, but one that is just as insightful as the memes that fuel the story.
/Film Rating: 6 out of 10
