Adam McKay, the comedic director best known for films like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers, takes a much more serious turn in the Academy Award Best Picture nominee The Big Short.
Filmed in documentary-style fashion, (with definitions placed on the screen, players talking to the audience, a narrator, and celebrities simplifying complex terms), we follow three separate stories that all feel interconnected – focussing on the 2008 world economic meltdown by way of high-financiers who predict and make money off of the housing bubble collapse.
It is the awkward and uncomfortable Michael Burry (Christian Bale) who discovers that the housing market is horribly unstable – he goes to the banks and has to convince them to allow him to bet against the market (they accept, thinking they are going to rob the man – as they believe the housing market is utterly secure).
Banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) is our partial narrator who pops into the story from time to time. He flits in and out of one of the main storylines, that of Mark Baum (Steve Carell), a miserable man who is burying the pain of his brother’s suicide deep within. A mixture of Vennett hearing of Burry’s actions and a mistaken phone call received by Baum brings the two together to capitalize on the coming collapse.
The final story follows small-time investors Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) as they luckily stumble upon paperwork that highlights the coming doom. They enlist the help of a former banker named Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), who has pulled away from the disgusting high-finance world and has become a family man survivalist, to raise the capital to bet against the market.
Of course, I am oversimplifying what goes on, and I will leave you to discover the numerous terms and concepts that must be understood to follow the tale. McKay and his team do an admirable job making the complex film accessible. It is actually quite entertaining as we watch real-life personas like Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez and Richard Thaler simplify what we are watching (using cooking and gambling as metaphors for what we are learning about). What could have been seen as a ludicrous distraction actually works, with these celebrity side notes succeeding in clarifying the complex subject matter.
The acting must also be commended. All of our leads do an excellent job. Gosling oozes slippery slime as a sketchy banker. Carell exudes great pain, throwing all of his woes into becoming a crusader against the high finance world. Bale is perfectly awkward in his role, lacking people skills and capturing his character’s just short of idiot savant nature. Even smaller roles from Rafe Spall, Marisa Tomei and Melissa Leo, to name but a few, are spot on.
I have a weird perspective on this movie. I cannot say that I loved it. Despite the solid story and excellent acting, it did not capture me in the way that other Oscar Best Picture nominees have this year. Yet, I also believe that this motion picture is probably one of the most important films that you should see this year. Its dark subject matter highlights the way our world works – illustrating the corruption, greed, as well as the lack of checks and balances that our financial systems hold. This very well may be the exception to my rule – as I am giving this film a good rating, though I do not think that I will watch it a second time. So, cash in on this tale of corporate corruption – it will surely open your ‘eye’.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because of the acting but mostly because of the storyline. It took a very complicated subject (that we all were aware of and lived through) and made it accessible (and understandable) to everyone. Great review Nik and I will see it again!