Directed by:
Adam McKayCinematography:
Barry AckroydComposer:
Nicholas BritellCast:
Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Finn Wittrock, Max Greenfield, Melissa Leo, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Byron Mann (more)VOD (4)
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In 2005, eccentric San Jose-based money manager and heavy-metal music enthusiast Michael Burry (Christian Bale) studies thousands of individual loans bundled into highly rated mortgage bonds and makes a startling discovery: The financial products are loaded with delinquent home loans certain to default over the next few years. While Wall Street bankers and government regulatory agencies ignore this ticking time bomb, Burry invents a financial instrument called the credit default swap in order to "short" the booming housing market — much to the dismay of his hedge fund's owners and investors. When slick young Wall Street banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) catches wind of Burry's strategy, he uses a tower of tumbling Jenga blocks to persuade hot-tempered hedge-fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell) that he too should invest millions in credit default swaps. Initially skeptical, Baum and his contentious team of wise-cracking young analysts (Jeremy Strong, Hamish Linklater and Rafe Spall) undertake their own investigation. Researching the housing market in Florida, they interview glib mortgage brokers who routinely obtain loans for grossly under-qualified home buyers and a strip-club dancer who's made zero-down-payment purchases of multiple properties. Meanwhile, 20-something money managers Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) also stumble upon the housing-market bubble. Hoping to break into the financial big leagues, they're distressed to find their $30 million fund falls almost $1.5 billion short of the requirements needed for a seat at the grownups' table. So they enlist banker-turned-environmental-doomsayer Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), who uses his connections to help them make their own bet against Wall Street. By the time the market finally crashes in 2008, these contrarian investors will make billions yet will be forever changed by their experience. But while the financial institutions whose reckless behavior caused the problem are bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, millions of Americans lose their homes, their jobs and their retirement savings in an economic catastrophe whose effects are still being felt today. (Paramount Pictures)
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Reviews (18)
This is a very difficult movie to watch and I believe that I’ll watch it again soon. It’s got a lot of information about finances that I kept getting lost in. And it didn’t even help that there was an insertion here and there that explained some of the terms very nicely. For example, Margot Robbie in a bathtub made for a very pleasant insertion. But the 130 minutes still flew in a blink of an eye and I really liked that about the movie. It told a really difficult topic in a very interesting way. The director Adam McKay went wild with this one. And we can also thank the actors like Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale or Steve Carell, who have taken the story to new heights. And when it comes to Steve Carell, I must admit that the longer I’ve known him, the better roles he keeps getting. The Big Short was a big surprise. It presented the big mess-up that the entire America has been though in a really original way; although, it was a big mess-up for most ordinary people and then just a slight mishap for the selected few who think they rule the entire world. And often, they don’t just think so, unfortunately. As far as the global capitalism goes, this is an eye-opening movie. But just for a little while. Thinking about this for any longer could cause infinite depressions.
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An interesting film on a subject I don't like, but here it is handled in an audience-friendly way and the fine actors make the film quite enjoyable to watch. I was disappointed with Christian Bale, he was a pain in the neck here, and Brad Pitt didn't get much space, but Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell were excellent. I was expecting a more tense finale and was hoping for at least some Boom!, which didn't happen. Still, a stronger 3 stars. The comedy label didn't really suit me here. 65%
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The makers of The Big Short were fortunately conscious of how indigestible a film overloaded with names, numbers, abbreviations and the uncovering of complicated relationships between the individual components of the investment market would be. Therefore, they conceived the film as a two-hour shouting match between a few eccentrics, speaking in advanced economic gibberish instead of human language. Without resigning itself to fidelity to the facts, The Big Short attempts to tell the story as graphically as possible and with the detached humour found in The Wolf of Wall Street. However, McKay is no Scorsese, especially in terms of storytelling abilities. Our guide on the path to economic disaster is Jared Vennett, who occasionally turns directly to the camera or stops the flow of the narrative to gleefully shed light on the tricks that the big fish on Wall Street use. But his own tricks quickly become predictable. The breaking of the fourth wall by the plain-spoken narrator is mainly a means of distraction, not – as in Wolf – an essential part of a well-thought-out narrative strategy. Similarly, the film randomly intersperses the exaggerated comedy with moments of existential crisis for the increasingly helpless Baum (the scenes with his wife are among the most unnecessary of the whole film, which is rather regrettable, given the casting of Marisa Tomei). Also distracting is the hyperkinetic editing and shaky camerawork by Barry Ackroyd, who shoots the sharp exchanges of opinion in the enclosed offices as frantic (Greengrass-esque) action. From start to finish, he zooms, refocuses and pans with admirable energy, resulting in the blending of scenes that are crucial for the narrative with others in which nothing essential happens. Neither the pacing nor the urgency with which the film speaks to us is developed. The film is monotonous, lacks suspense and surprises, and is rather more reminiscent of a PowerPoint presentation than a drama that is funny in places, but you have to force yourself to pay attention to it for the whole two hours. It helps a lot that some of Hollywood’s most charismatic actors vie for our attention; they are excellent especially in the brazenly farcical moments. The partially improvised scenes involving them shouting each other down are among the highlights of the film. Due to the shallowness of their characters, however, they have nothing on which to base their performances during the more serious moments. The same can be said of The Big Short as a whole. As merely a cynical comedy ridiculing people who make million-dollar transactions with no more thought than evacuating their bowels, it is highly entertaining. As a warning against the inherent rottenness of capitalism, it falls flat. 70%
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If you have a problem even doing a regular tax return, you're going to get lost in the terminology, and that’s even if Margot Robbie fully gets out of the bathtub. On the other hand, I consider the actors being led with such precision and then having a hundred-and-thirty-minute conversation edited into such a dynamic whole (which is not boring, even if you don't really understand it in the finale) a unique demonstration of directorial skills. This is a decent improvement from the director of shallow comedies.
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Can a two-hour lesson in pre-crisis economics, where CDOs are constantly shortened and there is swapping, be dynamic, emotional and fun? A very big bet on uncertainty, but surprisingly yes - a great masterclass of editing, music dramaturgy, (detailed) directing of actors and, of course, the glass eye of Christian Bale... Monetary shots right from the start of the year, write the mortgage in the name of your pooch, buy seeds, invest in water and listen to METALLICA. And have your colon rinsed out regularly. Nothing ends, moving on...
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