Back during the prime “shutdown” period of the COVID pandemic, amateur investors roiled the stock market via a quirky pursuit. 2023’s Dumb Money explores this story.

Boston area resident Keith Gill (Paul Dano) works as a financial analyst and also posts advice via video streams on Internet sites. In summer 2020, he feels the market undervalues the stock for retail chain Game Stop and sinks a large wad of his family’s savings into it.

This creates a ripple effect as he inspires other amateur investors to do the same and Game Stop stock shoots up in value. Wealthy professionals react negatively to this “uprising” and do their best to quash it.

It seems appropriate that Keith and his acolytes use the “Robinhood” stocktrading site given that their efforts result in the redistribution of money from the rich to the poor. No, they don’t steal, but ala Robin Hood, they do impact the financial status of the wealthy.

Clearly cast as an underdog story, Money makes both sides seem fairly simple. Keith and his followers all seem honest and likeable, while the “fat cats” come across as conniving, greedy and selfish.

This means the movie lacks a lot of nuance, and part of the issue comes from the enormous array of characters Money throws at us. Rather than just concentrate on Keith and hedge fund titan Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) – the main tycoon featured here – we get a wide variety of additional participants.

In addition to the families of Keith and Gabe, we meet various investors who follow Keith’s advice as well as other bigwigs and the men behind Robinhood. To some degree, I get the need to expand the film’s universe to these other roles.

The problems stem from the extent to which Money covers the parts. Despite his place at the narrative’s core, Keith often feels like just one of the ensemble, and that makes the movie spread too thin.

Again, I think a better-constructed version of Money spends much more time with Keith than the film does, and it more concretely sets up Gabe as our primary antagonist. While those notions exist here, the manner in which Money spreads its running time among the many others in the cast just waters down its impact.

We simply never get to know anyone beyond superficial qualities. This most negatively impacts Keith since he exists at the center of the story.

Beyond basics, we don’t know much about Keith. Rather than use the movie’s running time to flesh out his world, we go to all the others on a regular basis, and this tendency creates a vacuum in the tale.

In the film’s defense, I do acknowledge that this structure ensures Money moves at a brisk pace. It proceeds in a way that means we never lose interest in it.

And Money also delivers a tense work – especially if you don’t know a whole lot about the true events it depicts. I maintained awareness of the whole early 2021 Game Stop stock phenomenon but remained unaware of Keith or any of the movie’s real-life players.

Even if I knew what actually happened to Keith, Gabe and the rest, Money offers fictional characters as Keith’s followers. As such, their stories offer drama that keeps those with better awareness of the facts involved.

In that sense, I get the choice to expand the film to such a wide array of supporting parts. However, I suspect the average moviegoer never even heard of Keith Gill or Gabe Plotkin, so the flick still would’ve delivered ample tension even without the made-up folks.

Anyway, as much as I think Money spreads itself too thin, it does ensure we stick with it, and the ensemble comes with a pretty strong roster of actors. In addition to Dano and Rogen, we find Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, Sebastian Stan, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Vincent D’Onofrio, Clancy Brown and many others.

All do well in their parts. Many don’t get a ton of screen time, but they make the most of their moments.

Ultimately, I think Dumb Money provides a rousing tale but not one that lacks flaws. While I enjoyed my time with it, I wish it came with a tighter focus.

Dumb Money appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film came with an excellent image.

Sharpness looked nice. No real softness emerged, so the flick remained accurate and concise.

No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement remained absent. Source flaws also failed to create problems.

In terms of colors, Money opted for a mix of orange/amber and teal. Within those constraints, the hues felt well-reproduced.

Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows showed good delineation. Overall, this was a highly pleasing presentation.

I thought that the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Money seemed fine but it didn’t excel because of a lack of ambition. Given the nature of the story, the movie featured a limited soundfield that strongly favored the forward channels. It showed nice stereo spread to the music as well as some general ambience from the sides.

Panning was fine, and the surrounds usually kicked in basic reinforcement. A few scenes opened up better, though, like those on the streets or at parties. However, most of the movie stayed with limited imaging.

Audio quality appeared good. Speech was natural and distinct, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects sounded clean and accurate, with good fidelity and no signs of distortion.

Music was perfectly fine, as the score and songs showed positive dimensionality. This track was good enough for a “B-“ but didn’t particularly impress.

We find a few extras, and we start with an audio commentary from writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion of real events and liberties, story and characters, sets and locations, their writing process and related domains.

On the negative side, we get too much dead air here, and we don’t learn as much about the history involved with the material as I would prefer. Still, the chat moves at a generally positive pace and gives us enough worthwhile info to deserve a listen.

Two featurettes follow. Fat Cats & Roaring Kitty runs seven minutes, 44 seconds and brings info from Blum, Angelo, director Craig Gillespie, and actors America Ferrera, Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Nick Offerman, Pete Davidson and Shailene Woodley.

“Cats” looks at story and characters and themes. It lacks much insight and feels more promotional.

Diamond Hand Ensemble goes for five minutes, 40 seconds. It involves Gillespie, Dano, Rogen, and Offerman.

This one covers the movie’s cast and performances. Like “Cats”, “Hand” feels fluffy much of the time, so don’t expect much substance from it.

Three Deleted and Extended Scenes fill a total of two minutes, 41 seconds. We find “Locked Out” (0:56), “To the Moon” (1:24) and “Brad + Marcos Dance” (0:31).

Given the brevity of these clips, we shouldn’t expect much from them. They give us minor tidbits but nothing significant.

The disc opens with ads for No Hard Feelings, Equalizer 3, and Gran Turismo. No trailer for Money appears here.

As a David and Goliath story that revolves around the stock market, Dumb Money offers a pretty entertaining tale. However, the narrative spreads a little too thin to click as well as it should. The Blu-ray offers excellent visuals, acceptable audio and a mix of bonus materials. Though it doesn’t live up to its potential, Money still offers a mostly compelling experience.