A potentially hard-to-grasp rise of the little guy tale is told in a digestible, easy to understand fashion in "GameStop: Rise of the Players," a highly entertaining documentary about the improbable surge of video game retailer GameStop's stock during the COVID-19 pandemic.
You don't need to own a PS5 or understand the intricacies of hedge funds or short squeezes to get in on the ground floor of this doc by Jonah Tulis, who is well acquainted with the video game world (he made 2020's "Console Wars" documentary). He introduces the players and establishes the stakes and shows how a small crew made a lot of money (and caused a big crew to lose even more money) by simply following the market and putting their money where their mouth was.
It's the pandemic and a lot of people are at home, bored. While some baked banana bread to pass the time — a perfectly acceptable use of one's day that yields instant (and delicious!) results, it should be noted — others played the stock market, and eyed the floundering stock price of everybody's least favorite video game hut, GameStop.
