Review of The Big Short (2015) by Alison C — 03 Mar 2016

I HATED this movie the first time I saw it. I could not keep up with what they were talking about and their breaking of the fourth wall to explain things didn't actually help. A scene would happen and it would leave me wondering if what just happened was good or bad.

It was just so frustrating and confusing. Like watching a movie in another language with subtitles made up of knock-knock jokes. However, I have now spent the last week studying this film and researching all those confusing concepts.

It was a very intense but pretty cool experience. I could and have had to explain to people mortgage-backed securities, shorts, subprime mortgages, trances, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, synthetic CDOs, etc.

It's interesting stuff. Not super useful since I have no plans to go into investment banking. But now I watch the movie and feel smart because now I understand what they're talking about and what it means.

I appreciate the movie a lot more. But if you have to study for days to understand a movie, is it good? Does that matter? As long as you can follow the plot in its broad strokes and it's emotional journey? Interesting question.

Not sure how to answer. Points will be deducted for bombarding audiences with stuff that most of them will not be able to follow. But still, I appreciate that the movie is intellectually stimulating. Now, that aside, the writing is pretty fun and surprisingly light for a movie with such serious and significant content.

But it had the proper tone for those moments. The editing is FANTASTIC! WOW! SO GOOD! This should have won best editing. Not Mad Max. What a joke. I think Ryan Gosling is annoying and terrible in this.

But I adored Brad Pitt and thought Steve Carell was fantastic! What a fascinating character! A guy who is angry, bitter, and mean, but cares so deeply about what's right and is surprisingly virtuous.

Christian Bale is funny too. Great job! Yeah. Now this movie fascinates me.