Review of The Big Short (2015) by Russell Q — 26 Apr 2016

Films have sometimes looked back to the past and tell us about historic events that happen in the last couple decades. Some films like Lincoln, The Imitation Game, and Spotlight were confusing and trying to tell us what happens and you couldn't understand until you watch it like 20 times. However, other films like Bridge of Spies, Goodfellas, The Revenant, and The Wolf of Wall Street succeeded in telling inspirational stories. Now I found another masterpiece to join those four greats. It's called The Big Short, the amazing and shocking true story of the not so amazing financial crisis that took away many people's houses, jobs, pensions, and retirements savings in 2008 due to a housing credit bubble.

Director Adam McKay brings the best-selling book by Michael Lewis, the genius behind Moneyball and The Blind Side, into a marvelous tale that people can actually visualize as they had trouble reading the novel. McKay co-writes the script with Charles Randolph and they successfully bring the book to life. Christian Bale is just amazing as Michael Burry, the physician turned hedge fund manager who plays around in his San Jose office. He walks around barefoot, wears the same clothes, plays with his glass eye and rocks out to speed metal music. Burry was the only person who found out the banks were handing out bad loans to low credit risks.

The Wall Street cheapskates don't believe Burry, but Deutsche Bank dealmaker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) does. Vennett believes shortening home loans that are ready to fail will prepare for the crisis. Vennett later teams up with Mark Baum (Steve Carrell), a hedge fund manager at Frontpoint. Baum is happy when he's unhappy and chooses the right decisions from his three number crunchers: Porter Collins, Danny Moses, and Vinny Daniel (Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, and Jeremy Strong). Baum is a depressed all the time, always interrupts his therapy session, and refuses to take advice from his begging wife Cynthia (Marisa Tomei).

The last person who is getting involved with this crisis is Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), a retired securities trader from the JP Morgan Chase Bank in Singapore. Rickert wants to forget his sins and move on to help the environment. But two young investors, Charlie Gellar (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) are eager to get involved in the credit default swaps and take down the banks. They make Rickert their mentor at their company Brownfield and try to solve the crisis for themselves.

The film's cast all do an amazing job at acting. Bale plays Burry with grip and doesn't stop till he gets his money. Carrell, who did a wonderful job in his Oscar-nominated performance as John Du Pont in Foxcatcher, gives another tremendous performance as Baum, and should've gotten another Oscar nomination for this. Gosling, who did romance stories like The Notebook and Crazy Stupid Love, and dramas like his Oscar-nominated portrayal in Half Nelson and his slow performance in Drive, gives a funny, stupendous performance as Vennett, as he talks to the camera and narrates the story with altitude, Pitt gives another unique performance as Rickert, who is basically another version of Pitt.

The real person who rose up to the top would be the film's director Adam McKay. You probably know McKay from directing the Will Ferrell comedies Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys, but McKay proves here that he can do more than comedies. McKay directs the film with all he's got and ranks up with the list of one of the greatest directors of 2015. Thanks to McKay for writing an amazing screenplay with Charles Randolph and for directing one of the greatest movies of the year. McKay should keep doing these types of movies. McKay brings Michael Lewis' hit novel to a successful way of telling this unforgettable story.

Overall, The Big Short is a tremendous monument of epic proportions. The cast is unforgettable, the directing is great and the movie is very, very funny and very, very serious. And if you don't understand what CDOs, credit default swaps, and whatever is happening, McKay put in celebrities like Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and Anthony Bourdain to help describe them to the audience. I know it sounds stupid, but it's not. The Big Short is one of the movies of the 2015 you'll have fun watching over and over again.