In January 2021, the GameStop stock jumped 2500%, causing multiple hedge funds, who were short-selling the stock, to lose $70 Billion. One year later, on January 28, 2022 they released a movie called GameStop: Rise of the Players. The documentary style film stars no famous actors, only real people who invested in, and promoted GameStop stock. The film was produced by Dan Braun and directed by Jonah Tulis. It has a run time of one hour and 34 minutes. 

The film follows nine investors, Justin Dopierala, Rod Alzmann, Joe Fonicello, Dmitriy Kozin, Farris Husseini, Jenn Kruza, Jeff Tarzia, Abbe Minor, and Rigoberto Alcaraz through their time invested in GameStop. It shows an in-depth timeline of their lives and investment in GameStop from December 12, 2019 to March 8, 2021. The film includes many different forms of media such as Tik Toks, Twitch streams, YouTube videos, Reddit posts, Television news clips, and online news articles. 

I think it was a good film for a few reasons. First of all, the way the director put together all the different forms of media and different interviews made the plot flow continuously.  Second, I found it interesting how they included nine different main characters. Each person’s story was followed in depth an equal amount through their own interviews. It depicted each of their roles on social media that influenced people to buy GameStop stock, as well as their lives through the COVID-19 Pandemic. It made sure to show each person’s personal battles and connect them to their shares in the company. Third, the director did a great job of explaining the stock market and all the terms that are needed to know to understand the plot. Some of the clips shown are just explanations of terms the main characters used in interviews. It makes the movie accessible to anyone with little to no knowledge of the stock market. 

Overall, I thought it was a really entertaining movie. Many others agree, as it has a 89% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and 80% critic score. I would say that GameStop: Rise of the Players is an 8/10. However, I don’t think it’s on the same level as The Big Short, which is a movie about the 2008 stock market crash. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the stock market and has any level of understanding of the market.