The Big Short

Here is easily one of the most entertaining movies I've seen all year, and it's about a subject that should in all fairness leave the audience feeling sad and angry - the 2008 global financial crisis.  The Big Short does succeed at informing us on what happened behind the scenes at the banks, as well as the small handful of people who saw the housing market crash coming up to three years before it did.  But, it does so much more than succeed at being informative and well-researched.  It's also surprisingly the funniest film I've seen this year.

But maybe it's not so surprising when you learn that the director and co-writer of the film is Adam McKay, a man who got his start writing for Saturday Night Live, and went on to create many hit comedic films like the Anchorman movies and The Other Guys.  McKay has not just chosen to make a factual drama about the events, although he does succeed at that when he needs to.  He has also thrown in some gallows humor, some amazing performances, as well as some unconventional film choices, such as having characters break the fourth wall and directly address the audience, or use celebrity cameos who suddenly pop up for no reason to explain some of the technical jargon that Wall Street people use in their everyday business.  The unorthodox approach is what makes the film so memorable and engaging to watch.  Yes, we can sense that McKay cares very deeply about the subject matter.  This was most likely a passion project for him.  But he also goes out of his way to entertain as he informs, and ends up creating one of the smartest Big Studio films of 2015.

But the comedic edge the film has is not just for entertainment value.  It adds to the narrative, and makes it flow so much better than a straight up dramatic approach would.  And yet, the comedy never once lessens the anger that we are supposed to feel about the story or what is happening up on the screen.  McKay is angry too, furious even.  He is simply lulling us in and making us comfortable using his traditional comedic style, before he really starts to hit us with the details of what happened to cause the economic meltdown.  It's a brilliant approach, and one that could have easily been a gamble.  Make the tone too light and comedic, and you lose the punch of the story.  Make the film too angry and grim, and the comedy would seem out of place.  The filmmakers know exactly what they're doing here.  So does the cast, who expertly play every angle of the incredibly smart screenplay credited to McKay and Charles Rudolph.  It's almost a small cinematic miracle that The Big Short came together as well as it did.

The movie uses Michael Lewis' nonfiction book about the events as its inspiration, and focuses only on a select few characters.  There are five main ones that the film chooses to focus on, including a socially awkward financial genius named Michael Burry (Christian Bale), who usually prefers to work barefoot in his office, a financial broker named Mark Baum (Steve Carell) who is tough and no-nonsense, yet hiding a personal secret of pain, a duo of young amateur brokers named Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and James Shipley (Finn Whitrock), who see the whole situation as a way for them to get their foot in the door, and finally Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), a fast talking investor.  The film kicks off back in 2005, when Burry discovers that the banks are overvaluing the bonds, and the inevitable housing and financial crash that will result.  But, since everything is going well at that time, no one will listen to him.  So, he decides to "short" the bonds, which essentially means betting against the housing market.  Baum and Vennett get on board shortly afterward, while Geller and Shipley essentially have the information fall right into their laps, and act under the advice of former broker Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt).

All of these actors are able to "deglamourize" themselves in order to play these roles.  Bale seems somewhat off and appropriately awkward as Burry, and is almost unrecognizable here.  Sure, Bale is no stranger to losing himself and completely disappearing into a role, but he uses that to particular great effect here.  Also memorable is Steve Carell, who is much more recognizable, but is giving a fantastic performance here.  He seems sharper and a little more dangerous here, though we still sympathize with him, especially when the movie hints at some personal tragedy in his character's background.  It's a very different performance for Carell (especially one that's intended to be somewhat comedic at times), but he pulls it off beautifully.  The other stars in the film don't get quite as much screen time that Bale and Carell do, but they still manage to make the most of it, especially Pitt, who wonderfully plays a man who is so disgusted with the world of banking that he used to inhabit, he has essentially gone "off the grid", growing his own food and living a simple life.

In a way, a movie like The Big Short had to be an unorthodox docudrama, because it needs to explain the terminology of the business, and the way things work on Wall Street, as well as the events that led to the inevitable crash.  Obviously, McKay was the right man for the job.  He's gone with the right approach, he got the right actors to tell the story, and in the end he has ultimately made a movie that is as smart and informative as it could have been, while at the same time making it as fun and as entertaining as Star Wars, which is undoubtedly playing at the cinema next door.  It never talks down to the audience, and it never feels like it's using gimmicks to get our attention.  Like Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street from a couple years ago, it uses energy and an off kilter presentation to grab our attention and educate us.  But, in the end, I think this is the better movie.  It's more focused, and the humor and the facts hit harder in the end.

Not only is this a great comedic drama, but it will leave you with a little chill at the end when you realize that nobody has learned their lesson from the events that are portrayed here.  That's a scary note to end on, but a necessary one.  This is simply a brilliant movie.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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