The Big Short

When news first broke that Michael Lewis’ book about the 2007-2008 global financial crisis was being adapted into a movie written and directed by Anchorman and Step Brothers director Adam McKay, the reaction was a collective: WTF? Even more intriguing was the fact that the movie would star such high profile Hollywood names such as Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling.

The result of this unlikely collaboration is a unique and utterly original telling of the build up of the housing and credit bubble that eventually led to “The Great Recession” which ended in 2009. Making a movie about this type of subject matter would be hard enough, but getting people to understand the material and actually be entertained by it, is a whole other set of challenges.

Based on Lewis’s book of the same name, The Big Short chronicles some of the key individuals who believed the credit and housing bubble would burst, and how they controversially took advantage of the situation by betting against the banks. If the terms “subprime mortgage loan” or “credit default swap” sound painfully dull to you, you wouldn’t be alone.

  The global financial world is not for everyone. It takes a certain type of person to get out of bed in the morning and be excited about these complex terms and concepts. This is exactly why McKay was attracted to this particular story in the first place; the real life characters that Lewis describes in his book are full of idiosyncratic and peculiar behaviors, all while being some of the smartest men in the industry.

By telling the story of the financial crisis and what caused it through the eyes of these absurd personalities, we are better able to understand what’s actually going on while still being invested in the characters. Bale, Carrell, Pitt, and Gosling star as the odd group of Wall Street outsiders who correctly predicted that the markets were going to crash. Gosling also acts as the narrator who sporadically breaks the 4^th wall and talks directly into the camera and to the audience.

This technique is used as a way to help the audience follow along while also providing the necessary comedic relief along the way. Other types of gags are used throughout the film to further help the audience understand what the characters are talking about.This includes a scene of actress Margot Robbie, naked in a bathtub, explaining to us what exactly a “sub prime mortgage” is. As you continue to watch the movie you start to realize not only how important this crisis was, but also how little you knew about it in the first place.

The financial crisis of 07-08 is considered by many of the worlds leading economists to be the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression, yet many everyday Americans do not understand the causes or repercussions of such a global economic failure. McKay succeeds in striking a balance between the amount of information presented to us with the amount of comedy and drama carefully intertwined. Bale and Carrell give stand out performances among the ensemble cast as quirky and eccentric Wall Street executives who not only predict the downfall of the housing economy but also try and exploit their findings to their own financial gains.

The film has pushed McKay out of the slapstick comedy world and into unfamiliar territory with Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. While The Big Short is not your average comedy, it stands out as an interesting yet unconventional biographical study of one of the most uninteresting topics imaginable.