Review of The Big Short (2015) by Simon G — 04 Nov 2016

In the end, there are just too many players and the "macguffin" is just too damned hard to understand but for a while there Adam McKay's film about the events leading up to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 holds some genuine suspense.

Not surprise, but suspense, because we know how this is going to turn out, we just don't know what will happen to these individual characters. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt use the tricks of their trade to present us with some recognisable "types", eccentric or otherwise, but no one is given a chance to become three-dimensional (though Carell and Bale give it their best shot).

All of these guys and a few others played by non-celebs took a chance by creating deals that would pay out if the subprime mortgage market collapsed - so they basically bet that the economy would fail because the banks were greedy - and they won.

Ultimately, this is a depressing story with a highly depressing ending (cheaters continue to prosper). McKay exerts himself strenuously, directing this dry material to death, with a lot of ironic asides to the camera, some funny cameos to explain difficult concepts, a lot of mid-2000s montages (wow, 10 years can change things), and the requisite music to keep things moving.

So, it's somewhat breathtaking but in a car-crash sort of way, without too much effort to get at real characterizations, understandings, or even outcomes. But I guess I'm glad it's there, as a warning/reminder/harbinger of things to come.