Review of The Big Short (2015) by Ryan C — 26 Nov 2016

"The Big Short" is a comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Adam McKay, and it is the most important film to come out in 2015. In the years leading up to 2007, banks and mortgage companies became greedy and in turn, practically gave money away to new home buyers. What's the problem with that? Well, it's too good to be true. These "deals" included the requirement for little or no down payment, and adjustable interest rates that often had a "honeymoon" period where the rate was either at or below prime rate. Essentially if someone had no credit, it wouldn't be a problem.

In the meantime, major financial firms packaged all the shittiest mortgages together, threw in a few good assets, and slapped a new label on it called 'mortgage-backed securities,' promising it was a secure investment. However, to make this all work, the rating agencies would have to play ball, too. Which they did and would give these shit mortgage packages high ratings so that individuals, pension and investment funds would buy these all up because they believed it was a low risk, high return investment. Because of this, interest rates rose further, companies downsized, and people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their debts. Mortgages went into default, house prices fell and, with them, the value of those so-called "safe" investments. The financial institutions with the greatest exposure went bankrupt and everyday people lost their retirement savings as the value of their investment plans shrunk. And I give you, the housing bubble of 2008.

It turns out, however, that some people saw this housing bubble coming and that is what the film "The Big Short" is about. Based on the true story of one of America's big crisis', the film follows four groups of men who decided to bet against the banks as a way to say, "fuck you." It isn't as noble as it sounds, because when you bet against the banks, you bet against the American economy. Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a doctor who retired early from practicing medicine to run a small hedge fund was so convinced that the credit bubble would burst in 2007 that he shorted the market to the tune of over a billion dollars. Mark Baum (Steve Carell), a manager of a fund under Morgan Stanley's management, also bet against the market as did trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and young investors Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock). Charlie and Jaimie work out of their garage so they ask retired banker Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to help get them attention from large companies. Goldman Sachs and companies alike were eager to sell all these guys credit default swaps because they were greedy and if something bad were to happen, a bailout would wipe their hands clean at the expense of the American tax payer. So while these men actually became very rich from every American's money, they were right and did try to warn people of this terrible tradegy.

"The Big Short" is a monster of a film, full of intrigue, anger, and amazing performances. Most notably, Steve Carell, who should have won an Oscar for his portrayal of Steve Eisman. Christian Bale also gave a stirring performance and was nominated for 'Best Supporting Actor.' The film was nominated for five Academy Awards total, including Best Picture, Best Director, only winning Best Adapted Screenplay. This movie should be of great interest to you and make you angry especially since nothing has been done to help prevent this from ever happening again. After the bailout, the banks only used that money on themselves and to lobby against any form of new regulation being passed to protect the American people from being fucked over once more. If anything, "The Big Short" will be the most important and massively significant film Adam McKay ever makes in his entire career.