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.
I loved it!
I am not the musical guy. I do not like the music, it feels so soft - so mainstream - so "happy everywhere" or "sadness overload".
And I think that musicals should be watched live in a theatre and not in a movie, because the story, songs etc. are written to be watched live. Just like movies should not be performed in theatre.
But I have to admit: Les Misérables was great! The actresses and actors were amazing, the music wonderful. But you have to watch the movie with good headphones - or if u lucky with a good sound system. :o)
The acting of Anne Hathaway was amazing. Big love! Just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzNVmZfNoa8
The interpretation and renewed songs are perfect. Just Russel Crowe potential of singing was not the best, but it did not bother me at all. One of my favourite scenes / sing parts by the way is this clip. Sorry for the subs there:
http://youtu.be/q29OOI6Y6ig?t=1m38s
So even if you are not into musicals, give recommend to give it a try and you might get surprised and you gonna like it.
9 out of 10 points for this "movie". But if you didn't like the two youtube links I put here - you better won't watch the movie.
Writing: 5/10
Acting: 5/10
Tonal sanity/appeal: 5/10
Arnold Swartzeneggers: 5/10
Sharon Stones: 7/10
Aliens: 3/10
Rocks: 7/10
Michael Ironsides: Balsa Wood Sides/Iron Sides
That American Senator-looking guy: 8/10 Total Cunt :thumbsup:There's this anime about some Mars people and they're being invaded for profit or something like that, and it's called Dailos or something like that. Anyway it's a hell of a lot better than this.
Terrible. Truly painful to watch for much of it due to incompetent character writing and execution, but it fails to be stupid fun due to how outrageously gory and indugently violent it is, tonally often feeling like some cheap 1980s violence porn movie where the protagonist is a Budweiser-guzzling rapist living alone in the desert. Paul Verhoven really perplexes me with how inconsistent he is. But since it is Paul Verhoven, some of the sci-fi elements and megacorp stuff are done competently, but Arnold and the bloody ham sandwich of a script ruin any chance to take that seriously.
The big plot reveal belongs to a much better film. Actually, it belongs to an episode of the Total Recall 2070 TV series made later, and is superior in every imaginable capacity. There's a horror episode about an alien artifact driving people insane, and it's fantastic. Watch the show instead. It can not be overemphasized how little it has in common, tonally, and regarding quality of production and characters.
