Review of The Big Short (2015) by Chris O — 04 Jul 2018

A cynical, almost comical take on the chaos that ensued before, and during the 2008 financial crisis.

Writer/director Adam McKay joins forces with Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment to adapt Michael Lewis' best-seller The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which centers on the housing a credit bubble of the 2000s.

Well, 10 years later and some people have taken the 2008 financial crisis and turned it into a meme. And while I definitely lived through this period, my knowledge of this matter was limited. So, in typical filmmaker fashion, I figured that I should watch a fictional film that's based on a true story instead of reading up on it or something. Good thing I wasn't disappointed and I'll pretend that I learned a lot!

Let me address one thing about this film. I normally really dislike those who try and break the fourth wall. For films with lower budgets especially, they always feel like a gimmick. I feel like it's a lazy way of writing but in some cases, it can be a bonus. For example, it worked solidly for "Deadpool", along with "Deadpool 2", but those are the two in recent memory. Thankfully, I thought this film used that fourth wall breaking aspect to its advantage and it never overdid it. In fact, in came in handy a lot of times and it paid of well.

For a film filled with a bunch of different stars, I really enjoyed watching it and watching everyone's performance. Christian Bale was a pleasure to watch, Ryan Reynolds was hilarious, Steve Carell was strong, and Brad Pitt did solid. I felt as though everyone in this film did their parts well and did great jobs of bringing their character's personalities to life. I felt like they were all simultaneously hilarious, but I felt like I also learned a lot about the situation at hand.

Overall, I felt like this movie was actually kind of educational in a way. I learned different perspectives of those in this crisis and all the emotion behind it. I'm glad we got to follow multiple stories and get invested in all of them. This is something that scares me and actually kind of angers me. It's a situation that happened and hopefully, something good can come from it.