The Big Short

Score:  ****1/2 out of ***** (A)

Directed by Adam McKay
Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling
Running time:  130 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  The Big Short is a dramedy with documentary elements (your own description may differ!) based on the nonfiction book about the 2008 financial crisis.  The script does a fantastic job developing the drama while explaining the complex stuff, and the superb cast led by Christian Bale and Steve Carell bring it all to life exceptionally well.  Plus, it's even funny!  A must see.


In 2005, the American housing market was making a lot of money for a lot of people.  The good times kept rolling, and everyone thought they would keep going that way.  Almost everyone.  Some things are too good to be true, and eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Bale) takes a closer look at the numbers.  Sure enough, he finds a large degree of risk due to increasingly poor loans, and decides, against conventional wisdom, to bet against the market with a new concept called credit default swaps.  Elsewhere, investor Vennett (Gosling; also the film's narrator) catches wind of this unusual move and comes to the same conclusion - in fact, his theory goes even further.  More actors get wind of this as well, including trader Mark Baum (Carell) and his team, and the amateur duo of Charlie and Jamie, working out of a garage.

Baum, deeply cynical of the system yet entrenched within it, digs deeper and begins to discover the true level of fraud and negligence from everyone, including the government.  The early excitement of finding a massive opportunity for profit which just a handful saw, including Burry, Vennett, and Baum, turns to varying levels of numbness, guilt, and anger as the consequences begin to play out.

The Big Short is ably led by an impressive cast both in the big star leads and the supporting players.  Christian Bale's Burry is the first character introduced, and the co-lead.  One of my favorite contemporary actors, Bale fulfills expectations in playing the brilliant yet socially inept investor.  He shows a single-minded determination to solve the housing question, which he does impressively, yet he is also believably helpless in dealing with people both above and below him who are incredulous at his bet against popular opinion.  Steve Carell as Mark Baum is the other co-lead, and gives an equally great performance.  Due to personal tragedy, Baum is angrily determined (and unafraid to be an asshole) to "call the bullshit" he finds in the corporate world, and wins by profiting handsomely.  The indifference to others' feelings recalls Carell's boss on The Office, but he is no buffoon - he is deadly serious and smart.  And despite that trait, he somehow also serves as the on-screen moral surrogate as even his expectations of corporate misbehavior are upended.  Grating yet in command, Carell is superb.

Gosling and Pitt each have smaller roles.  Gosling's Vennett is mostly highlighted, beyond the narration, in humorously and vividly explaining the situation to Baum and his team.  Slick, arrogant and not nearly as regretful as the others, we get just the right dose of Vennett and Gosling does a great job with him.  Pitt plays a former banker who has turned against not only banking but most of society; yet still decides to help out his young friends Charlie and Jamie.  I've seen this kind of calm crazy from Pitt before (not sure where), and he also exudes the competence and even a little of the cool that you expect from him.  Also wisely kept to a minimum, Pitt is a positive presence as well.  There are several  cameos, but I want to give a shout-out to the impressive supporting cast, which provides everything from humor (Hamish Linklater's partner to Baum) to depth (Marisa Tomei as Baum's wife).

The Big Short is difficult to define, and sometimes to watch (for the subject matter), but it is equally easy to see for the surprising entertainment value and overall quality it presents.  The film is based on Michael Lewis's (Blindside, Moneyball, etc.) 2010 book and has an interesting hybrid drama-documentary feel to it.  This is partially because, in addition to having the actors I just described in roles like any other film, Gosling's narrator also speaks directly to the audience and there is definitely an effort to try to explain it all (including a few well done asides).  Both aspects work exceptionally well.  I thought I mostly understood the background to the 2008 financial crisis before seeing this, but I still learned a lot from the film, the housing market aspect itself in particular.  Remarkably, the script also creates a genuinely riveting drama around this with real people (adapted to one degree or another, I'm sure).  To rephrase my acting section a bit: the film has the unique individual who starts to unravel it (Bale); the central character (Carell) whose career and even personal life is in tune with yet deeply challenged by the crisis; and the side story of the "little guys" (Jamie, Charlie) naively trying to swim with the sharks.  The editing and pacing as these strands are weaved together is remarkable and makes the two-plus hours fly by.  Finally, I also have to mention the strong comedy involved here.  Despite being about a recent and very painful event, The Big Short is funny in all the right ways.  Not only does it leaven the pain, but it also often effectively complements the natural anger and outrage that the story produces.

***

The Big Short is an excellent film, and not just as art or entertainment; you'll probably learn something about the financial crisis here, too, no matter how familiar you are with it.  I was pulled to this film because of Christian Bale and Steve Carell, as well as to what seemed to be a humorous spin on a complex, important recent event.  It had all of that and used it to the maximum, in addition to featuring the impressive narrative that I explained previously.  Admittedly, the film starts to gloss over some details later in the film - particularly in how the CDOs came to truly infect the banks and bring about the sensational, shocking news headlines.  But there had already been enough technical details explained, and the focus on the initial, housing market component was wise.  I truly can't think of any significant flaws with this film.  The film's ability to simultaneously explain the complex situation as it arose and develop its characters, and by the end to convey the scope of the real, overall damage and pain that was done along with the dramatic resolution, is quite impressive.  A must-watch film (try to see it in the theaters, but Netflix will work, too).






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