Synopsis: Four outsiders in the world of high-finance who predicted the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s decide to take on the big banks for their lack of foresight and greed. (Imdb)

[Jim’s Review] [Kenny’s Review]

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Two years removed from the terrific “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and Adam McKay manages to recreate the same tone and feeling in “The Big Short“. McKay the co-writer and director must have studied a lot of the Scorsese film, as he manages to capture the lead-up and downfall of the 2008 credit and housing bubble collapse the same way as Scorsese did with 1980’s Wall Street.

The film is narrated in first person by Ryan Gosling, which is the same approach used by Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street”. This is a great touch and vital part of the movie as it describes what actually is going on in simple and relatable terms. The guest cameos by real life celebrities explaining what is taking place is a fun added nugget. Margot Robbie sitting in a bathtub explaining the collapse of the economy isn’t the worst thing to see, although a bit distracting. The film’s story focuses on a few people from different walks of the financial world who had predicted the collapse well in advance, but no one took them seriously.

The men at the forefront of these predictions were Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a loose cannon eccentric number crunching wiz who figured out the data that would lead to the collapse. Mark Baum (Steve Carell) is a sharp and bright hedge fund manager, who hedges his bets on a slick talking trader for Deutsche Bank Jared Vannett (Ryan Gosling). The fourth man that saw the downfall of the market was Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) a financial guru turned eco-friendly survivalist living a natural overly simplistic lifestyle, who ends up helping out a couple college graduates working out of their garage trying to make it in the financial world. All four of these men were portrayed as misfits in their own way, whether due to their personalities or reputation.

The performances of this star-studded ensemble are terrific all-around, basing their characters on real-life people that were involved in this collapse. Bale is off-the charts as a weird heavy metal crazed financial analyst. With limited screen time he’s dynamic in every scene. The up-and-down emotional roller-coaster he displays is Oscar worthy. Carell is two for two doing astounding work in back-to-back years. A guy who was merely known for being The 40-Year-Old Virgin for years has firmly established himself as one of the premiere leading men in Hollywood, and that’s in drama, not comedy. With his terrific portrayal in “Foxcatcher” as the twistedly creepy Jon du Pont, his character in this film is just as good as an intelligent and savvy, yet emotionally conflicted individual. Gosling does the narration throughout the film, but doesn’t appear until later in it. He carries the film just as much as any individual with his voiceover work. Pitt plays a small supporting role and he’s virtually unrecognizable in character. Grey scruffy beard, clear glasses, shaggy hair, and playing a character who is as odd as he is smart. This is a removal of what Pitt is usually known for. He’s as nerdy as he’s every been in a movie.

McKay does an excellent job delivering the convoluted data in a understandable and relatable way. The “fourth wall” is broken as Gosling’s character breaks-down the meanings and messages in a humorous way. This is a must-see movie for anyone that wanted to understand what happened to our economy. Unless you are working in the financial world, most wont’ grasp the concepts talked about, and that’s okay because the filmmaker doesn’t expect you to understand the lingo spoken. The collapse isn’t elaborated on as much as the focus is about the lead-up to it. It’s a fascinating story about a few individuals who figured out the system and profited from the collapse. This in turn poses the question if these characters in the film are heroes or villains? There is no clear-cut answer, only a moral opinion. Carell’s character feels sympathy and hurt for the people affected, he even makes a speech at the financial summit in Vegas about the impact on the common folk. I’m sure there was some remorse by the actual men that knew the impact this event would have on everyone’s lives, including the lives of their friends and loved ones.

“The Big Short” is one of the best movies of the year. It deals with a real subject that affected majority of the population and many of the individuals reading this review, including myself. It’s a significant topic that dominated the late 2000’s, and we are still recovering from it as a society. The far ranging impact of this collapse is noted in the movie. People lost jobs, homes, and their lives. It’s scary how so many smart individuals and corporations missed the brewing issues that were facing them. The movie is a commentary on the greed of corporate America, and how regular people always end up loosing at the end. The corporations recover and don’t get the punishment deserved. While “The Wolf of Wall Street” showed the nasty side of stock trading and how people lost money, mostly wealthy people were affected in that case. “The Big Short” is more relatable to the everyday hard working person and it’s presented in a educational, entertaining, and humorous way.

Rating: R

Runtime: 130 minutes

Release Date: December 23, 2015. 

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[Jim’s Review] [Kenny’s Review]