Next Goal Dumb Money Wins

[00:00:00] What you want, when you want it, where you want it, this is the mesh.

[00:00:08] Footcandal Films. Film news and reviews from two guys who really like movies.

[00:00:18] This episode is brought to you by the Footcandal Film Society.

[00:00:22] For a schedule of upcoming screenings and membership information, for this week is no exception. We are going to be reviewing two different films, recent releases that we would like to discuss and share our thoughts with you on. First up is going to be the latest film by writer, director Tycho Waititi. It is called Next goal wins starring Michael Fassbender. Then we'll be moving on to our second film,

[00:01:41] which is the movie Dumb Money,

[00:01:43] which is directed by Craig Lebsby

[00:01:46] and starring Paul Dano among many others as well. Did nobody tell you? You're fired. Good news, is you got two options. Option one, that's where you're currently at. Or American Samoa. Are you serious? If you're all that I'm lost when I'm braiding back. Oscar-winning writer, actor and director, Taiko Itidi, has dabbled in both independent

[00:03:02] cinema with boy and hunt for the wilder people, as well as big budget blockbusters with MCU This movie is, okay, before I saw the film, this movie I feel like is Kater made to me as an audience. I have several elements of this film that I was really, that on paper looked really, really good to me. No talking animals. No, there's not, that's the one down thing. That's the one negative it has in the smart. But Michael Fassbender, I really like Michael Fassbender.

[00:04:24] I'm generally happy to see him in anything he's in. I like the idea of a quirky, funny, but also I like a good sports movie. I like a good formulaic sports movie. To me, yes, sports movies, you know what to expect. You know if they're played to the standard, you know how they're gonna go story-wise. It's all about the telling of the story. Like how do you tell this story of victory

[00:05:40] or coming up against great odds and all?

[00:05:43] So all those factors, Chris, on paper,

[00:05:46] make me really anxious and bit like Monty Python. You either kind of get on the wavelength with it or you think it's

[00:07:03] just stupid and silly and it really irrit his own. And I just was like, okay, cool. Now, the movie did have little funny moments here and there that I liked. Could it have been funnier?

[00:08:21] Yes.

[00:08:22] I don't typically go in for sports movies.

[00:08:25] Like you do.

[00:08:26] It's not just my, our flag means death, where he tries to bring in different, like a way of thinking about pirates differently. I didn't say that, but that sounds awesome,

[00:09:41] like something I should have said.

[00:09:42] So thank you for that.

[00:09:44] So I think with this no, it's good. So you're on you're positive on the I am overall positive. I am too. I actually really had a good time with this film. Okay, good. I'm a little saddened by all the negative pushback it's getting. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. It's it's got some major issues. And I

[00:11:00] got to say, unfortunately, I think the biggest issue with the

[00:11:03] film, it's not Michael Fassbender is an actor. No, no, no,

[00:12:04] play a completely different way later in the film. Now he's back to version number one for maybe five minutes. I think he's back to version three for a little bit. It was it was disjointed. I felt like

[00:12:09] the performance was and I like seeing fastbender do lighter work like this. And I do think he was

[00:12:18] a good choice for this role. I just wish the role had been better written. Okay. A more consistent

[00:12:24] voice to this character because I do feel like it bit. There were actually three or four scenes. I did find terribly terribly funny. And I think it's taking a sports movie, a traditional sports movie based on a true story, adding just had fixed the main character situation for me, I think we could have had a really great film as it is. It's a good fun film that I enjoyed, but I can't go beyond that. So, back to you, Chris. Thoughts on that? Yeah, I hear what you're saying. And I think it didn't

[00:16:01] overhead projector, which is great. And they're putting up like, okay, you basically been fired

[00:16:04] and this is what's happening.

[00:16:05] We're kind of a review board type situation

[00:16:07] and they have an overhead projector

[00:16:09] and they lead him through the stages of grief

[00:16:12] and like, you know, except him, like they keep putting those.

[00:16:14] Awesome.

[00:16:15] And so that kind of thing, it's like,

[00:16:17] yes, so that's the thing.

[00:16:18] That's kind of how his character is in this movie.

[00:16:21] He kind of bebops all over the place.

[00:16:22] It's not a very clean line.

[00:16:24] And to me, it didn't bother me because, One minute he's portrayed as a coach who's incompetent, then vacillating between that and a really, really good coach who's got anger issues. And that's why people push him aside. Then he's inspiring one minute and he's dismissive of another. And it's like, I get it, you wanna have character development. I'm all for seeing somebody develop, but it's just like we were just ping ponging

[00:17:41] all over the place during the movie.

[00:17:42] I didn't feel like there was anything moving him

[00:17:45] into any kind of development role at all.

[00:17:47] So that's the to the team. I thought the way they handled the relationship with the coach and her were really good. I mean, it was confrontive and abrasive at one point, but you understand why, because you understand where the coach is, his background and his mentality at that time. Sure. You do see that change and you do see

[00:19:02] a, I think a fairly positive relationship grow.

[00:19:05] I really enjoyed the putting the team back together too much for me on his character. But that, and I don't know the people of this country, never been there. If they're all meant to act and have mannerisms like Tycho Wettiti does as a person, cool. He kept it all. I don't feel like they do.

[00:20:20] I feel like that's a little bit of a caricature

[00:20:22] might have been laid over all the people in the film.

[00:20:25] I don't going to get. And I knew that it was even maybe more so than cool runnings, even that I had John Candy and it was supposed to be funny. I felt like, yeah, this is jokes and a little bit of true trueness to it. But other than that, that's not what they're going for. So and I just, I'm glad that he still can make films because I feel

[00:21:42] like if anything, this was like a film for type situation where, yeah, the movie's good and it has funny parts, but then the more you kind of let it sink in, like I could sit here and do like a Chris Farley, hey, Aaron, do you remember that moment? Oh, that was good. I'll throw. Do you remember that moment? Oh, that was really cool. I'll throw one, probably the one that made me laugh the absolute hardest. Okay. In the locker room, during a very tender,

[00:23:02] emotional moment, one of the players gets a chance

[00:23:05] to speak and give a very, yeah, I do want to ask you because this has been kind of floating around in there Tycho A.T.D. talking about his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and people have begun being disturbed or maybe worried about the fact that one of the things that supposedly he's working on is a

[00:24:26] Star Wars film. Yes

[00:25:24] the Star Wars franchise kind of going down that path. So I'd be curious to see what he can do with a more straightforward science fiction drama action drama movie like a Star

[00:25:31] Wars film. I'm curious. I can't say I'm positive or negative on it. I'm just curious. Thor 11

[00:25:38] Thunder really really just made me believe he doesn't need to do the problem I always in those two movies as the road was with the fast-bender character here so that's my issue with it i think he i think he uses the characters he needs to make his. Punch line joke or scene work. It's not as important to have a strong character development arc for someone this podcast is sponsored by jackson creative.

[00:27:00] A custom communication agency located in downtown hickory north carolina specializing in online content creation.

[00:28:01] with that. If that movie even happens. Sure.

[00:28:02] And it's every Star Wars project seems to be, you kind of roll the dice whether it's actually

[00:28:06] going to happen or not.

[00:28:07] So, yeah. But that is next goal wins. Sounds like Chris and I were both relatively positive

[00:28:12] on it and to add a good time with it. I did see some issues with character development

[00:28:17] and with, especially with the main characters role, but it was not enough to prevent me from

[00:28:22] still having a good time with this film. And I think it's a, I think it's a little surprising one guy driving all the buying. Vlogger Keith Gill, played by Paul Dano, sings his savings into GameStop and posts about it. Social media aids his

[00:29:40] posts in going viral, appending his thing. I'm fascinated by the story. I am someone that I knew when this whole situation happened in the news, just like what, a year and a half, two years ago. I mean, wasn't that long ago? I believe, yeah, because their references to the pandemic and the film. Yeah, so it'd be like 2020, 2021. Right. So I remember when this was happening,

[00:31:00] and I remember reading and listening to a lot of podcasts

[00:31:02] and trying to understand, okay, exactly what's happening here.

[00:31:05] I'm trying to understand the mechanics of how this happened.

[00:31:07] And I will tell you, I see what are supposed to be, you know, quote, the good guys in the film, the people who are banking on GameStop and they're putting their personal money into a stop because they're kind of want to stick it to Wall Street and say, no, you can't make this company go out of business. You can't push this out. We're going to fight for

[00:32:24] it. We're going to put money into it and we want to and then they start making money because of that, It does absolutely paint the good guy bad guy strokes pretty pretty pretty pretty thick I mean when the bad guys you the scenes you see him and they're shipping sipping champagne and plain tennis outside Yeah, okay, you know how they're being painted in the in the movie right away And I never think that's fair I think there's obviously some nuance in there to kind of share but we don't really get the nuance

[00:33:44] I think the care that was interesting for me is Seth Rogan's character is gay plot can

[00:34:45] why people are doing the things they're doing as opposed to just explaining how it's happening. Because I got a pretty good clear picture of that from the film.

[00:34:48] So, alright, I'm rambled Chris.

[00:34:50] Sorry, what's your thoughts on this film?

[00:34:52] Well, interestingly enough, it's kind of, I think we're roughly feel the same way about

[00:34:58] the film overall.

[00:34:59] It's kind of an okay film.

[00:35:01] But my reasons for not appreciating it more and not getting more out of it were, it seems

[00:35:07] like, and it's maybe, You know, there's one side the little people the dumb which if one thing I will say to this movie I learned where the title came from dumb money the retail investors the dumb money They were trying to support GameStop Against what they felt like were these big hedge fund people tearing it down. Okay, that I got but I knew that before I went in

[00:36:21] My question was and I kind of I watched this with my wife and she was the same way afterwards

[00:37:21] And he's like, and the guy's like, oh, what'd you do? He's like, oh yeah, I just shorted another six,

[00:37:24] whatever million, I don't know, whatever, however much

[00:37:27] in stock.

[00:37:28] And I'm like, yeah, but what does that mean?

[00:37:30] Well, and also there's a little bit of the disconnect.

[00:37:32] Again, I understood just because I had read up

[00:37:37] and kind of got familiar with this whole concept,

[00:37:39] but watching it with somebody else in my family

[00:37:41] who was not aware, yeah, it's the same question.

[00:37:43] It's like, okay, so how is it that this one stock,

[00:37:47] and I know there's a reason for it,

[00:37:48] but we don't understand it from the film? a lot or I knew that was going to be a comedy. This one I kind of went into with the expectation of, no, this is, I'm going to learn a little something and there may be some funny stuff, but it's more about learning how this happened and why it happened. And instead to me, it was treated more kind of like a broad comedy with, I liked Seth Rogen and his portrayal of this guy who

[00:39:03] of the hedge fund people they showed, there to like this film more, of course. I always wanna like every film I watch. You know, I don't wanna just watch a film to tear it down. And I thought it was okay, but yeah, like you're saying,

[00:40:21] it's like they just, it's more about being funny

[00:40:25] and creating that mob mentality of,

[00:40:27] oh yeah, let's just watch to know why a little bit more. I was kind of shocked to when you have

[00:41:44] unlike me again going back to next goal wins but. All you're gonna know is good people making money, bad people losing money, that's all I know. And again, I just don't think that's enough.

[00:43:00] You know, a couple other actors you were mentioning,

[00:43:03] we had, oh gosh, Shailene I just think the film needed to do a little more. Well, I felt like when they were showing the hedge fund side of things with, you know, okay, I felt like that was clear enough. The Robin Hood side, I felt like that was a little less clear. I mean, they were there and they were an important part, but like they

[00:44:21] demonize Sebastian Stan's character.

[00:44:23] But the other co-founder, you don't really get guys kind of flounder in an interview and kind of say some things that sound a little, a little devious and a little evil and we're going to make insinuations that they're bad and that's all you need to know. Right. Because that they're just they're bad. That's all you need. They're gonna go all over the room. Because the viewers just need to know

[00:45:40] that they're bad and that's it. And I'm sorry that's just not enough to make this film work as well irritated me actively irritated me with a college students because I like I actually kind of got annoyed at them Like I was getting annoyed at the hedge like they warned you to get annoyed at Seth Rogan's Rich guy because these kids just seem to be very like surface or whatever and they do try to at one point kind of You know after the movies kind of winding down a little bit

[00:47:02] And they try to show you how some of the investors were hurt are these are all just people were supposed to feel sympathetic for me. I didn't mind the college students being ones I'm like, oh yeah, just random people are just investing too. I'll say, okay, but I got that from, yeah, if I were to totally delete them from the film, I still got that from the outcome of some of the other people

[00:48:22] because not everybody walks away from this thing,

[00:48:25] not all the dumb money people walk away with a lot of money, by chat rooms or by like web chat rooms on Reddit or whatever, like stuff like that helped push it forward. I felt like in TikTok, I felt like at times that got to be a little like cluttered and didn't really add anything to the movie and actually got annoying. But maybe that's the whole point

[00:49:40] is like the noise ratio of all social media.

[00:49:43] Like when things were happening

[00:49:45] and how they were like saying the end of the film, you do get to see some real-life footage of many of the characters from the film. Right. I was actually, look, it was surprising to me. I feel like for my age, my age and where I am in life,

[00:51:00] I do spend a fair amount of time on the internet. I tend to feel like I'm pretty up on

[00:51:05] internet culture and what's happening out there, but yeah,

[00:52:05] terrible movie. No, no, it's not a terrible movie. Again, if this movie's on and you know, I'm somewhere, I'll watch parts of it. I'll see some of it again. There's some moments

[00:52:09] I liked. Yeah. I'll give it this much. I have been on record on this show with my lack of

[00:52:18] total admiration for Pete Davidson. We haven't. All right, well that's dumb money. It is available online right now for rental or purchase. So you can't see it anytime you'd like. Only because we're approaching the holiday seasons and I know I get recommendations about films to see. Sure.

[00:53:40] This is not one for the family.

[00:53:41] It is a lot more extreme language than I expected it to be.

[00:53:46] You know what's interesting?

[00:53:47] Yeah, because I know we're wrapping up for the grownups for the adult ones. But it's an interesting story. Sure. I'm glad they made a movie about it. I do feel like I understand the story a little bit better than I did going in. I just wish it had gone a little extra couple extra steps with the explanation. And being not so cut and dry on the good and bad

[00:55:02] side of the coin,

[00:55:03] I need a little more understanding of the nuances

[00:55:05] between these groups.

[00:55:06] And I apparently just need to break down We enjoyed the money, serviceable film that works at some level, but really missed some opportunities to make it something good and could have been a lot better for sure. Chris, if anybody has some thoughts on these two films, they've seen them. They want to challenge us on our opinions. They want to have a spirited debate about either of the two of them because I feel like

[00:56:22] there's probably going to be more spirited debate about these films out there.