THE dust was still very much airborne on the GameStop crisis of January 2021 when MGM snapped up its cinematic retelling: Dumb Money.

More unusually still, the film is based on a book that had yet to be written at the time. Its writer, Ben Mezrich, hadn’t even found a publisher to guarantee his book would see the light of day.

Back then, the film was to be called The Antisocial Network, in tribute to to Mezrich’s earlier book on the rise of Facebook. Hollywood snapped that one up too, you may have seen it. Oscars were won.

Mezrich finally published a book for the film to adapt in September 2021, three months after Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo were hired to write its screenplay. I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie was signed on by April last year and, 17 months later, here we are.

The film recounts one extraordinary year in Wall Street. Perhaps you remember the GameStop short squeeze? An episode in financial history when a group of small time Reddit users took on the markets and won big.

The ins and outs of the story remain a head scratcher for the financially disinterested. Talk of shorts, shares and squeezes mean little to most of us - which is exactly how the city likes it. They have their world, we have ours.

GameStop was but a speck of dirt on the stock exchange when a community of low income Reddit users began their investment crusade in January 2020. A long struggling electronics and video game retailer in a business crippled by online vendors.

By January 2021, GameStop faced bankruptcy and Wall Street smelt blood. Yet, just as big money began to bet against the store, our small time amateurs doubled down on their investment. Across sixteen wild days, shares in GameStop rose from $19.94 to $347.51. On January 25, 175 million GameStop shares were traded. A near record for Wall Street.

Less preachy than Adam McKay’s The Big Short, an obvious comparison, Dumb Money is best termed a fun romp. It’s expertly cast - Paul Dano, Shailene Woodley, Seth Rogan and America Ferrera all star - and tightly put together.

Gillespie works hard to eke out an accessible narrative from complex themes. He may miss certain nuances but this is never at the expense of a good time.