GameStop: Rise of the Players

The entire theater stench of cheese and doritos was extreme!! I heard 100 farts and 500 coughs. Cheese and doritos everywhere!! Power to the PLAYERS. Best film of 2022. Oscars nominees every single damn frame!! Go see this film! Run! Don't walk!!

There's an innate allure in cinematic representation of real-life events, especially when those events are ongoing and their conclusion yet undetermined. "GameStop: Rise of the Players" is an attempt to capture the ongoing saga of the GameStop short squeeze, a saga that arguably redefined the relationship between Wall Street and retail investors. The challenge here, however, is that the saga isn't over, and the movie, therefore, feels premature. It's akin to trying to write the ending to a book that is still being written.

The movie attempts to chronicle the tumultuous events surrounding GameStop's stocks but fails to tackle key elements of the saga. It shies away from the complex but crucial issues like naked short selling, Failure-To-Deliver (FTDs), and the warehousing of such FTDs.

This evasion feels like a disservice, considering that these are central to the entire GameStop episode. A report by the SEC on September 8, 2021, confirmed the presence of naked short selling and FTDs during this saga, which exposed a glaring loophole in the financial system.

Then there's the matter of short interest exceeding 100%. In January 2021, reports suggested GameStop's short interest was a staggering 140%. That's more stocks shorted than even available, an inconceivable scenario that should have triggered immediate investigations. But it didn't, raising questions about the oversight mechanisms of our financial systems.

The movie also glosses over the controversial aspect of self-reported short numbers, which allows institutions to essentially police themselves. The absence of a third-party verification process is puzzling, akin to letting the fox guard the hen house.

Another glaring omission is the discussion on the disparity between financial penalties and the profits gleaned from unethical activities. Firms have been fined millions for infractions that brought them billions, effectively making these penalties a cost of doing business. For example, JP Morgan Chase was fined $920 million in 2020 for manipulating the precious metals market, but such a fine pales in comparison to the profits they made.

The film's most glaring fault, however, is the portrayal of retail investors. In real life, these investors weren't merely pawns in a larger game but were informed individuals who saw an opportunity and seized it. These were the players who noticed that GameStop was being shorted at an unsustainable level and acted on that knowledge.

Despite these flaws, "GameStop: Rise of the Players" isn't without its merits. It's flashy, fast-paced, and peppered with snappy one-liners. But ultimately, it feels like an effort to hypnotize with style over substance.

As for who the movie is for - that's a good question. If it's not for the retail investors it purports to represent, then it feels like it's for those who wish to maintain the status quo. It seems more like a tool to perpetuate the narrative that retail investors are not savvy enough to play the game, rather than highlight the glaring inefficiencies in our financial systems.

To enjoy this movie, you'll need to look past these omissions and view it purely as entertainment. But in doing so, we must ask ourselves: Are we merely accepting the distractions instead of addressing the real issues? If a movie about a seismic event in financial history can't discuss the fundamental faults of that system, what can?

"GameStop: Rise of the Players" had a unique opportunity to spotlight a broken system. Instead, it chose to focus on the spectacle and left the substance on the cutting room floor. As the GameStop saga continues to unfold, one can only hope that future attempts will dig deeper into the heart of the matter.

I love the Gamestop story. Wall street getting the treatmnet it has dished out for decades and then crying about it like the GOP snowflakes they are.

Try to watch everything I can on this but this was, for me, unwatchable.

I guess someones girlfriend, boyfriend, or partner, thinks they are a musician so the soundtrack got left in.

It is so loud you struggle to hear the people tellng the story, such a struggle you just give up.

Seems to be the trend lately. Crap music soundtracks, that are louder than the interviewees.

This movie gives a brief understanding of the (first part!) of the Gamestop saga. It's a great starting point to educate people, and show how easy some wealthy Wallstreet investors can manipulate the whole financial system to their own benefit (Ken Griffin being the biggest among them), and how small retail investors om Reddit found out a leap in their cheating mechanisms.

However, unlike mainstream media like to make people believe this whole Gamestop saga is over, the situation hasn't changed. Shorts haven't covered and Ken Griffin isn't in jail. So the movie is a good start, but how the second part will play out is what I'm really excited for.

I don't want to spoil this movie to those who haven't watched it yet.

But if you're unsure if it's worth watching or not, I hope I can persuade with this review that it's worth watching, just to get an idea of what happened... Is happening?

The topic in question, Gamestop, had a group of investors involved in making a decision to invest their money in the company for the hope of a good return on their investment after analysing information they found about the company during what is coined 'pre-squeeze' (2017-2021)

You learn, somewhat a feeling that I was left with of information that seemed to not tell the whole picture, as if something was kept out of the documentary - whether on purpose or as a means to allow the director convey their story I'm unsure, about various occurances throughout the years but mainly months leading up to January 2021, when the stock value of Gamestop rose way above the value it was worth the previous wmyear and in fact so high it actually has a term for it a 'squeeze' which doesn't make a lot of sense to me to use such a term because to squeeze would be to put a restraint on something yet in this instance it seems to refer to increased value in a stock.

Then we learn what occurred during this squeeze, that hedge funds and financial organisations involved in the stock markets had stopped anyone from buying the stock which in turn forced the value of the stock to plummet. Something that has Never happened before! This blew my mind!

And then it sort of ends unfinished in my opinion because after looking at the stock value of Gamestop now its been so what of a roller-coaster over the past year to date.

I didn't know anything about this other than some talk on the news last year but now that I've seen this film I've been reading more into what has happened since what was told at the end of the film to learn why it appears there seems to be something still going on.

I recall the other day before I even went to see the film on a news channel that Gamestop was over but confused why such news was broadcast because if you look at the stock value it is still higher than it was 'pre-squeeze'.

Like I say, it's an interesting film because there's stuff I didn't know about and if I had known I'd have probably paid more attention February of last year.

I'm surprised there's no trivia or reviews at present on here seeing as Cinemas are dead at the moment. Other films that have come out in the past few months are bombarded with reviews and trivia. Why there's little on this page for this film is also questionable.

Anyways, it's a good 8/10 film for me. I've never wrote a review before felt compelled to write something here seeing how little info is on this page. Something fishy going on but I can't figure out what.