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IS IT BOLLOCKS?
Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.
Q Did Dumb Money’s Keith Gill (AKA Deep-Fucking-Value, AKA Roaring Kitty) actually bring Wall Street to its knees from his bedroom?
Keith Gill (played by Paul Dano in the film) managed to start a movement by betting against Wall Street. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a bunch of Jordan Belfort-types started ‘shorting’ GameStop stocks – essentially, they were betting that the American video-game retailer would go bankrupt and the share price would drop to zero. Gill foresaw that GameStop’s fundamentals were not pointing towards bankruptcy and started buying shares. He then posted videos on YouTube about his investment, leading to Reddit users also investing money in GameStop, increasing the share price further. Those Jordan Belfort-types then allegedly ceased trading on the app Robinhood, used by everyday people to trade, so that Wall Street could stop the GameStop share price from rising any further. Eventually, Gill had to testify to the US government to explain that he did nothing corrupt and some of his speech is directly translated into Dumb Money. Indeed, the events of Craig Gillespie’s film are largely true, though little is known in reality about Gill’s personal life. There are also Redditors who take issue with the film as they believe the GameStop saga has not concluded and that short-sellers are still betting against the company. Wall Street has since bounced back.
VERDICT NOT BOLLOCKS (WELL, AT LEAST FOR A WEEK OR TWO)
ON LOCATION
REEL SPOTS BEHIND THE CAMERA
WHAT? In GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan makes his 007 debut with a pre-title bungee leap from a towering dam. Talk about diving right in.
WHERE? Verzasca Dam, 6596 Gordola, Switzerland GO? Now a popular bungee-jumping spot, you can follow in stuntman Wayne Michaels’ footsteps and throw yourself 220m into the abyss while humming the Bond theme.