The Big Short 2015

Almost the whole time I was watching this movie (including the bath-scene with Margot Robbie) I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.
I'm not a numbers guy nor do I know all the terminology in American banking and mortgage systems and most of it looked like watching some kind of alien language. In the end though I knew what happened, I saw people warning us for what was about to happen and watched it all crumble down when it did happen.

All in all though it's an excellent portrayal of a system that is quite frankly a big con, stripping away money from those "below" with people at the help that don't really know what they are doing. An intricate web of rules, regulations, lingo, faces and characters who don't know the full picture. I think the movie quite nicely mimicks this chaos in the way it is set up, the catchy camera movements and often loud and noisy environments the scenes play out in. Here's a famous face that will teach you plebs what it's about, "let's simplify this for ya" so you're lured in.

Despite it's dry subject, the vast amout of stuff I personally didn't fully grasp it is a very enjoyable movie that will keep you hooked till the end.

Oh and it took me about at third the movie to realize Brad Pitt was that one guy.

When I wrote my thoughts on Spotlight, I speculated about how knowing the end of the story going in, knowing the extent of the scandal the team in Spotlight was uncovering, may have robbed the plot of some of its punch. And yet, The Big Short is, in many ways, the perfect counter to that.

Almost everyone old enough to watch this film lived through The Great Recession. They know that the disaster all the main characters in the film are predicting comes true, in all its horrible, self-destructive glory. But rather than taking away from the film, it adds to it. There's this sense of foreboding, of doom that hangs over everything.

A film about the financial crisis, especially involving traders and analysts and people crunching numbers in a fund, could easily be too dry. And yet, the fact that the individuals the film focuses on are slowly but surely investigating an economic massacre waiting to happen, and how each step they take reveals another way that disaster might have been diverted, or people who are supposedly in the know digging the whole deeper, means that the entire film is just an exercise in creating that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's not a prestige picture; it's a horror film.

It's also a very weird film. It's not so bold in its presentation that it feels unprecedented, but it feels stitched together, disjointed, and unusual, but in a good way. Adam McKay, of Anchorman fame, is the right man for the job. There is a darkly funny absurdity to the topic The Big Short covers, and with his fourth-wall breaking asides, his cuts to celebrity explanations of complex financial consequences in ridiculous situations, and his jumping between various characters acting wild or nutty lends the perfect tone to the movie, one of simultaneous horror at what hell hath been wrought and unavoidable bemusement at the clowns who steered us all into this ditch.

The direction and rhythm of the film is frenetic. It's closest comparison point is Requiem For a Dream with the same frenetic hodgepodge of images and sounds, bleeding and blending into one another, disorienting the viewer and conveying the sense in which the financial world the film depicts is intoxicating, dizzying, and unsettled all at the same time.

Another aspect of the film that makes it hard to compare to other works in this space is the fact that it doesn't really have a protagonist or a plot. Sure, it has a story, and it has characters who take up the most oxygen over the course of the movie, but more than anything it feels like a documentary. It's far too stylized and irreverent to really deserve that label, but it's far more interested in trying to describe what happened, to explain just what mistakes and lies and blindspots led to the global economic crisis, than it is in rising action and resolution, or showing people growing or changing.

That's not to say there isn't an emotional element to the film. Steve Carell stands out by playing essentially a smarter, angrier Michael Scott who grabs your attention every time he's on screen. The parallels between his character's sense that a catastrophe is looming in economic terms that he could do something to prevent, and his guilt over not doing more to prevent his brother's suicide was--while perhaps a little easy--also affecting.

The rest of the cast do their jobs well, but blend together a bit because again, while they're a vital part of the film, the film isn't really about them. The characters in The Big Short are conduits to detail, in amusing and human terms, just what the hell went wrong. Christian Bale is a collection of actorly tics, but he acquits himself well enough. Ryan Gosling does his best dudebro douchebag type, and is sufficiently entertaining in that guise. And Brad Pitt seems pretty reserved, short of his moment where he chastises his young wards for being too happy about what they're making their money from.

But again, the fact that there's not really a narrative means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The film is not really a story; it's an autopsy, cutting up the corpse of our financial system and exposing the bloody innards, the rotten organs at the core that led the USA, and the world, to the dire economic state it was in by late 2008. In that sense, the film succeeds wildly, and McKay manages to tackle something of real significance without losing the absurd madcap attitude he brings to his comedic works, and somehow, doing justice to the insanity of the lead up to The Great Recession in the process. It's a hell of an achievement to make a film this funny, this disturbing, and this great.

Day 7 of Ryan Gosling Binge

"Boom!"

Wow. Speechless. I understood the movie up to some extent but I can't say I understood it completely, there are several terminologies and such which baffles me because I have no idea about the subject at all.

"The Big Short" however had me captivated throughout the runtime by doing such a great job at telling a story so bold and realistic. The 2008 financial crisis was displayed really well in this movie and what could've bored me to death somehow never lost my interest thanks to the direction by Adam McKay. The heart of the movie lies in the powerhouse of a cast it has, Christian Bale nails it like he always does, him listening to Rock music while predicting the collapse of the economy is peak cinema. And then there's Steve Carell, his performance is my favourite out of everyone, the portrayal of emotions were so perfectly done. Ryan Gosling, I expected so much from him but I was quiet disappointed. That is not Ryan's fault at all, the character is to blame, his character was mediocre and didn't have many chances in the script to shine most of the time I felt like Ryan was just ask on set and be him.

What I loved about the movie is it's willingness to confront the greed, corruption and the systematic failure which led to such a disaster. The direction by McKay is absolutely brilliant, the constant 4th wall breaks, the explanations and cameos from celebrities had be invested and grinning at times.

The Big Short smartly accomplishes it's storytelling in a way of a 'wake-up call' for us. It does a good job at execution and the portrayals of consequences behind every bad or good shit that happens behind the scene. When Carrel's character said "Boom" I was honestly surprised by how much this movie achieved, you have a sense of unease lingering in you and as the credits roll...perfection.

The Big Short- 7.8/10
Ryan Gosling- 6.5/10 (not his fault okay? he was just mid here and I am rating based on his previous performances)

So I've finally saw The Big Short this week and I thought it was pretty average. Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt all gave terrific performances, and I'm so happy that "Foxcatcher" wasn't just a one off for Steve Carell. The writing was great and some of the 4th wall breaking in this movie was good, and yes the characters actually do turn to the camera and say whatever their thinking.

I like Ryan Gosling a lot as an actor, but in this movie he didn't do anything that special (in my opinion). I just wish there was a little bit more to his character then what we got. I'm not saying that his the worse part of the movie, but he's only there to narrate the story and explain a lot of things that happen in the film.

The style of the movie did get on nerves a little a bit and I know it may not bother other people, but it did for me. Some of the 4th wall breaking and the directing decisions doesn't always hit as it whats to.

Overall The Big Short is a decent movie with knock out performances. I know a lot of people either like or love this movie (from what I've seen), and I can understand why since there's a lot to like in this film.

"We're going to wait and we're going to wait and we're going to wait until they feel the pain, until they start to bleed."

For years I have said how great of a director Adam McKay is, responsible for outlandish comedies such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. I say this not because of how genuinely funny his films are but because he understands the flow and tone of his films so damn well. And that is what makes him a great director and it is apparent once again in the thought provoking, yet hilarious, The Big Short.

The Big Short is essentially about the United States financial crisis in 2007. Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale) predicts that the housing market is about to crash so he creates credit default swaps that entitle him to basically bet against the market, allowing him to rake in so much money when the inevitable finally occurs. The cast in this film is fantastic and what is funny is that most of them do not even meet each other throughout the course of the film. Burry has his own story that plays out, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) are doing their own thing, and Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) has another situation as well. However, they are all striving for the same goal: to bet against the housing market and accumulate a significant amount of money.

As the film unravels, we learn more about the nature of these banks and industries and Mark Baum, whose character goes through the most development through the film, really starts to lose faith in himself and for everything he fought for. Carrell shines so greatly in this role, being his best since Foxcatcher, and its apparent, and somewhat surprising, how much he has grown as an actor. The entire cast is fantastic as well though; Bale and Gosling steal the show multiple times as well.

From the get-go, it is obvious to the audience that this will be unlike any film they have ever seen before. The dialogue is sharp, the camera is going all over the place, and the pacing is anything but sluggish. The storytelling in this film is very unique and there a lot of moments that will catch you off guard, thanks to McKay's confident outlandish direction that shines constantly throughout this film.

The Big Short provides a great insight on the economic crash in 2007, doing so in a unique and often hilarious manner. This is an extremely difficult film to make because of all the people involved and how much content is necessary to be told but McKay handles it with his own flair magnificently.

The story of the causes of the housing meltdown in the late 2000s. Having read most of the book this movie was based on, I nonetheless enjoyed the complex explanations boiled down to simple analogies. And the characters covered in the book are presented in the movie as underdogs 'fighting the system'. Surely the movie shows some of the ways the system was plainly rigged. And yes, the enormous assumption that the majority of the people would always have enough money to pay their mortgages proved to be the big downfall of the house of cards financial analysts built. The movie shows the characters on the book trying to explain this to anyone who would listen, or as righteous judges of the corrupt financial system, and therefore the viewer very much sympathizes with them.

A big problem I had with this movie is the odious cinematography. I almost did not venture to see the movie because of it. And I had a headache afterwards. Surely there are people in Hollywood that still know how to hold a camera? The 'documentary style' for movies is over-hyped and overdone. In my view, it doesn't make a movie look more realistic. It makes it look unprofessional. And, on top of making me sick --- and why would I pay to see a film that will literally have me throwing up afterwards? --- I feel ripped off. If I wanted amateur --- or amateur-looking --- cinematography, I wouldn't be paying for a movie ticket: I would have my five-year-old nephew make a movie for me.

There is a reason this film is my most-watched film and why I love it so much, the truth is that this film takes a very complicated event and finds a way to explain it to your average film watcher in such a way that makes you feel the impact of this event at the time and at the same time has those moments that make you laugh hard. That is because of the masterful direction from Adam McKay who is better known for comedy but this film shows that he is able to do both at an Oscar level.

I cannot pick out a favourite performance in this film as every single character is played so damn perfectly, the only actor who stands out the most to me is Steve Carell (Mark Baum) as he is playing a character who is suffering from trauma and at the same time trying to get ahead of the financial disaster of the entire century.

If you are interested in finding out about the financial crash in the 2000s, then I seriously recommend watching this film as it is extremely accurate and the weird thing with this film is that it is really rewatchable.

Before we’ve even fully awoken from our ‘Christmas eating and New Year partying’ induced slumber, director and writer Adam McKay throws us a curve ball. McKay’s hit comedy collaborations with Will Ferrell are modern classics; it’s hard to find someone who couldn’t fire out Anchorman quotes or who hasn’t got Step Brothers in their top 10.

These films are welcomed with open arms, but this time round, that ball is coming, not in the way we expected it. Firstly, The Big Short doesn’t star Ferrell. Instead, on the frontline are Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt. The story begins with hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) whose quirky personality hides genius brought to light by his discovery of the instability of the housing market; he then decides to profit from that said situation.

Trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) hears on the banking grapevine of Burry’s actions and being one of the only people to see his prediction as fathomable, he follows suit. A wrong phonecall leads Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) and his team in on the job with Vennett. Not the only ones betting against unstable housing bonds, young investors Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) catch whiff of the financial agreements placed by the others and recruit retired banker Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to give them some credibility to get involved with the big boys.

The plot filling this storyline consists of these men bargaining, pitching, convincing, and arguing but most of all, the dreaded banking jargon. Not for the faint-hearted or attention-deficient, sure, but audiences shouldn’t be put off. McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph hire the likes of Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and Antony Bourdain to explain and enhance the viewing experience with vibrant, funny and inventive metaphors for the bonds, the agreements, and the loans that non-banking folk may not quite be accustomed to.

This isn’t the only device used that makes the film as energetic and fast-paced as the financial sector itself. McKay opts for rapid, choppy montage editing, for which the images used seem somewhat trivial at times.

It cannot be denied though that the atmosphere created from not only this style but the snappy, piercing dialogue overflowing with comedy and even breaking the fourth wall, was simply electrifying.

What The Big Short does differently from McKay’s previous work is that it hits hard. These are not heroes the story is following. They’re people profiting off the global crisis that affected millions of people through loss of jobs, houses, lives and it really happened.

Just when the excitement and humour sweeps you up, it throws you back on the floor reminding you of the horror of what happens worldwide if and when these misfits are right. This shines through the performances of Steve Carell and his team played by Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall and Jeremy Strong. These actors owned their multi-layered characters but it’s when they’re woven amongst the other roles that everything seems to click.

Unfortunately, the characterisation of Burry wasn’t as slick. This could be a result of Bale’s gimmicky quirks which although a crucial factor in the portrayal of Burry, were considerably distracting on occasion. This is a small bug to bear throughout a whirlwind of words, crime, and justice. The Big Short reels audiences in with stand-out performances even from supporting cast, giving emotional whiplash through shock and humour. Adam McKay has upped his game.

I refuse to believe that the bean counters at Scion Capital would let IT set all their computer workstations to "never sleep" the display. Think of all the electric bill inflation!

What's really great about all the Dell workstations scattered through the film is that I have either used or currently own nearly all of the peripherals shown on screen. (That probably just reveals how dated some of my hardware is, to be honest…)

Now, with that out of the way… I liked the tone of this documedy (if that wasn't a word yet, it is now). The mix of comedy and obvious dramatization (even pointing out the fictitious bits at points), the tongue-in-cheek hiring of celebrities to explain the "dry" bits—all of it…except the music. On several occasions, the choice of music just didn't make any sense. I get that the film was going for loud, in-your-face, even obnoxious, but it just didn't work sometimes. It felt like trying to force a laugh at the juxtaposition of music with scene, and seemed half-baked.

The characters didn't really stand out much from each other. With the exception of Mark Baum, all of the bankers were interchangeable more-or-less white guys, both in appearance and in personality. Ben Rickert was more of a caricature than a character, hardly possessed of any depth. Not that I expected depth in a movie of this sort…but it's still disappointing. It's 100% possible to have both deep characters and good comedy, but The Big Short delivered (mostly) flat characters and (generally) passable comedy.

7.3 seems about right, since I did laugh a solid few times and learned some stuff. (7.4 if I were feeling generous, but I'm not.)

It's 2005 in America, and while a vast majority of the nation's bankers, investors and homeowners are reaping the benefits of a booming housing market, a select few recognize the telltale signs of a tenuous bubble and invest accordingly. First they're laughed out of a dozen different boardrooms - mortgages, they're reminded, are the safest long-term investments in the land and have never, ever failed - but, after wiping the tears from their eyes, a number of large banks are perfectly happy to accept their cash in a series of long shot bets against the "sure thing." This displeases the money behind the money, profit-hungry capitalists who see these as reckless investments, and the pressure of their growing discontent results in a number of tight races to the finish line. Will the backers pull out before the market inevitably collapses? Can the fat cats continue to win in the wake of such great losses?

Well, you probably already know the answer to that one. And, if you've been paying attention for the last fifteen years, you know how on-the-money these naysayers were about subprime mortgages and adjustable rate loans. Therein lies the rub; we know how it all shakes out, but we don't know which runners will still be in the race and on their feet when their collective prescience is proven valid. We also don't really know who to root for. The inclination is to back the guys on the fringe of the establishment, those smart and bold enough to call the banks on their mistakes and jab them right where it hurts. But, as one character so deftly explains on the floor of a Las Vegas casino, if those guys win, that means millions of Americans will lose their retirements and their homes. As someone who was personally affected by the collapse, that really hit home. At least one side of this story had the decency to step back, if only for a moment, and realize the broader implications of their numbers game, and to address the desperate futility of it all. Inevitably, everybody loses except the house, because the house, we've learned, is too big to fail.

I wasn't surprised to learn, after the fact, that the source volume was written by the same man behind Moneyball. The comparison sprung naturally to mind: both do a wonderful job of digging into the nitty-gritty, of explaining the rules of the shadow games, without losing the audience to impatience or disinterest. Very smart, very raw and very effectively witty when the tension gets too thick and everyone needs to reset with a deep breath and an exhale.