The Big Short
Starring:
Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Finn Wittrock, John Magaro
Directed by: Adam
McKay
Written by:
Adam McKay and Charles Randolph
130 minutes Rated
M
I
studied economics for a while at school and have a basic grasp on the topic
given the change in direction and terminology over the couple of decades since
I tried to comprehend it all. I even have a sense of what caused the Global
Financial Crisis and the concept of subprime, short selling and hedge fund
traders. After two and a bit hours
watching ‘The Big Short’ I am now aware that my retention of the fundamentals
and my competency in the complexities are far too removed from each other and
possibly dramatically lacking in both arenas for me to grasp a movie that
encompasses such themes.
This is a very good film that tries to skirt around the complexities by presenting much of it in a humorous vein sprinkled with witty asides, sarcastic observations and frankly ludicrous scenarios (or is that scenaria?). I understand that while the bankers and 'experts' either ignored or were too caught up in formulaic thinking to see that home loans were becoming delinquent in huge numbers and would soon default, a number of other observers were smelling an opportunity to make a lot of easy money from it happening. That I got. The mechanics of it all...subtitles or an explanatory guide please.
Ryan Gosling's character tells us early in the film that normal people aren't really meant to fully understand the financial world - thank the Lord I'm normal for once! The beauty of this film is in using this as a pivot point, showing us how the incomprehensible language, jargon and tricks (they'd probably call them strategies and programs) and adding complexity upon complexity to what is probably a simple equation (the curse of our age - making the simple complex)you confuse the masses - your target - and you have control to do what you will. In this case, as all too many were to discover, that's exactly what happened.
A well written movie based on Michael Lewis' best seller, giving the excellent ensemble of actors and characters myriad chances to strut their acting chops and none fail. The characters never actually interact for the most part and yet they slot in to form the collective beautifully. And for me not one character had an ounce of integrity about them in the end (Steve Carell's character gave us hope for a while but in the end we knew he was pissing in our pockets; Brad Pitt also nearly had us but he turned out to be a vain, paranoid creep as well). we find out just enough about each figure to want to see them in action but never enough to get to 'know' them (or need to wash in disinfectant to get their vileness off later).
I very much enjoyed the awkward and socially inept brilliance of Dr Michael Burry (Christian Bale), the man on the edge of 'going postal' Mark Baum (Steve Carell making his part almost the anchor for the whole story), the almost repulsive ego driven Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling - never wear black hair again) and, for me the stand out performances of the new boys on the block Jamie Shipley and Charlie Geller (Finn Witrock and John Magaro respectively). Brad Pitt turns in a nice cameo as the former insider turned outsider who can't quite miss the fuel for his conspiracy theories and paranoia (or is it?) and helps the two young guns uncover what's going on - this is a very believable and natural small role. But apart from an entertaining cameo from Margot Robbie and a nice turn from Marissa Tomei as Carell's wife there are almost no women...surely there were some crook females involved?
Director Adam McKay, who also co-wrote the script with Charles Randolph, gives us a film that could have been dry and uninteresting but it delights and entertains at nearly every turn. Some of this comes from the aforementioned humour but also by the deftly placed turns to camera/breaking the fourth wall moments. McKay entrusts us to make what we will of what is presented to us, there is no absolutely no judgement in this movie, facts are presented as simply what happened and what we make of that is our call. Maybe that's why the final moments, the end stats and information brought me to tears - of rage I'm sure. Surely this is McKay's gift to us...if this enrages you, if this makes you even a little pissed off, if this strikes you as simply wrong, perhaps you'll open your eyes and make sure it doesn't happen or can't happen again or at least to you.
Frankly I wouldn't mind if a few more of the people involved (well actually a helluva lot more, maybe even the majority) ended up in jail or made to pay back in some way. I'd be even happier if some of the worst offending companies weren't now back to making huge profits, paying big bonuses and enjoying the favour of leading politicians and signing contracts for government projects.
And while we're at it, I'd like to see more films of the quality and creativity of this one.
4 out of 5
This is a very good film that tries to skirt around the complexities by presenting much of it in a humorous vein sprinkled with witty asides, sarcastic observations and frankly ludicrous scenarios (or is that scenaria?). I understand that while the bankers and 'experts' either ignored or were too caught up in formulaic thinking to see that home loans were becoming delinquent in huge numbers and would soon default, a number of other observers were smelling an opportunity to make a lot of easy money from it happening. That I got. The mechanics of it all...subtitles or an explanatory guide please.
Ryan Gosling's character tells us early in the film that normal people aren't really meant to fully understand the financial world - thank the Lord I'm normal for once! The beauty of this film is in using this as a pivot point, showing us how the incomprehensible language, jargon and tricks (they'd probably call them strategies and programs) and adding complexity upon complexity to what is probably a simple equation (the curse of our age - making the simple complex)you confuse the masses - your target - and you have control to do what you will. In this case, as all too many were to discover, that's exactly what happened.
A well written movie based on Michael Lewis' best seller, giving the excellent ensemble of actors and characters myriad chances to strut their acting chops and none fail. The characters never actually interact for the most part and yet they slot in to form the collective beautifully. And for me not one character had an ounce of integrity about them in the end (Steve Carell's character gave us hope for a while but in the end we knew he was pissing in our pockets; Brad Pitt also nearly had us but he turned out to be a vain, paranoid creep as well). we find out just enough about each figure to want to see them in action but never enough to get to 'know' them (or need to wash in disinfectant to get their vileness off later).I very much enjoyed the awkward and socially inept brilliance of Dr Michael Burry (Christian Bale), the man on the edge of 'going postal' Mark Baum (Steve Carell making his part almost the anchor for the whole story), the almost repulsive ego driven Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling - never wear black hair again) and, for me the stand out performances of the new boys on the block Jamie Shipley and Charlie Geller (Finn Witrock and John Magaro respectively). Brad Pitt turns in a nice cameo as the former insider turned outsider who can't quite miss the fuel for his conspiracy theories and paranoia (or is it?) and helps the two young guns uncover what's going on - this is a very believable and natural small role. But apart from an entertaining cameo from Margot Robbie and a nice turn from Marissa Tomei as Carell's wife there are almost no women...surely there were some crook females involved?
Director Adam McKay, who also co-wrote the script with Charles Randolph, gives us a film that could have been dry and uninteresting but it delights and entertains at nearly every turn. Some of this comes from the aforementioned humour but also by the deftly placed turns to camera/breaking the fourth wall moments. McKay entrusts us to make what we will of what is presented to us, there is no absolutely no judgement in this movie, facts are presented as simply what happened and what we make of that is our call. Maybe that's why the final moments, the end stats and information brought me to tears - of rage I'm sure. Surely this is McKay's gift to us...if this enrages you, if this makes you even a little pissed off, if this strikes you as simply wrong, perhaps you'll open your eyes and make sure it doesn't happen or can't happen again or at least to you.
Frankly I wouldn't mind if a few more of the people involved (well actually a helluva lot more, maybe even the majority) ended up in jail or made to pay back in some way. I'd be even happier if some of the worst offending companies weren't now back to making huge profits, paying big bonuses and enjoying the favour of leading politicians and signing contracts for government projects.
And while we're at it, I'd like to see more films of the quality and creativity of this one.
4 out of 5
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