The Big Short

The Big Short (Adam McKay, 2015)

Four denizens in the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.

As Hollywood is telling financing success (see The Wolf Of Wall Street) and crisis (The Big Short), we are propulsed in a world that is as unclear who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. A bit like we you are watching a gangster flick and the cops are as full of shit as the bad guys. In Adam McKay’s The Big Short, almost every person wants his piece of the pie and everyone is at some time a bad guy.

Staring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Melissa Leo, and other supporting actors giving solid performances as well. With this solid cast and Adam McKay’s dynamic directing, The Big Short is a film about a complex subject that is well explained with a penchant for breaking the fourth wall and addressing to the camera the characters and real life persons like Margot Robbie or Antoine Bourdin. The directing is also widely inspired by the documentary observation of a retelling of events that is often dramatized. This is mostly a hit but sometimes it breaks the pace and a more subtle approach could have make a stronger film in its whole. However, The Big Short has a voice and coming from the same director of The Other Guys, Anchroman,  and Stepbrothers I was not expecting to enjoy this that much.

To be honest, even after finishing the film and the explanations it provides, I am not sure I fully understood all the credit collapse that is the subject of the film. The problem with a film that is not simple like this is that it should be clear to the viewer with no basic in finance to fully understand its propos.

Well, even with this minor flaw The Big Short is a bright example of the time it came out, a cynicism that rots everyone’s confidence in economy and laws.