The Big Short Review

Another year and yet another movie about a current social topic that is big enough to have several movies. The Global Financial Crisis. There have been several documentaries about it and a handful of movies and I would recomend that you watch them over this. The first venture for Adam McKay outside of a straight out comedy movie tries to be drama/comedy and it doesn't blend well. When you have a topic that caused 1000's upon 1000's to lose their jobs the movie doesn't take the topic seriously when it should the way other movies do.

One of the first things that needs to be talked about the movie is the way it was directed. It was shot like a mockumentary like The Office, Arrested Development and Parks and Recreation and it's also edited like one to. This style does it make easier for the audience when Ryan Gosling's character talks to camera. However we very rarely see the whole room where the actors are acting and we are always close up in their faces.

With an editing/directing style like this it makes it hard for the audience to really get a grasp of the actors acting and the environment they are in. This make me really wonder how Adam McKay and his editing team got a nomination at the oscars for their respecitve fields. Espically when movies that are right up oscar lane deserved those spots (E.G. Carol, Steve Jobs) and movies that didn't even get a nomination on the same issue (E.G. 99 Homes) and are far supperior films.

Even on a comedy level this movie is OK at best. Most of the jokes are delivered throught dialogue and doesn't make any use of visual jokes. I believe this to a problem across all american comedy movies and here is no exception.

The cast however all bring in great performances even if we don't get to see many wide shots of them acting together. However there isn't a standout performace and each actor brings something to the table and it's a team performance in this movie and Christain Bale's nominations while not well deserved should've gone to everyone in the cast and the nomination could've gone to Michael Shannon for 99 Homes).

It also great seeing Steve Carell doing some serious roles and exercising his acting muscles. Ryan Gosling who narrates most of the story is good but his character seems to a supporting character to Steve Carell's and it makes you wonder why he narrated the movie. Christain Bale who is good in the movie (and I would like to know how they pulled off a glass eye) should've had the oppurtunity to act with more actors instead of a small cast who were all postioned in the office. Finally the major actor in the movie is Brad Pitt who also produced the movie and has most likely entered the same scernario he did for Twelve Years a Slave in which it was more likely that the movie will get more funding if he starred in it. Therefore his character was only introduced into the movie about halfway through and is barely featured and some other cast members have more screen time but don't receive billing as high as they deserve.

If you read any other review for the movie you will read about the terminology in this movie. Holy god is it hard to understand even when they explain it to you. When you try to explain something about money don't use something else that revolves around money (in this case black jack). To cover up the complicating dialogue they get a handful of celebrities to disguise what your listening to with what you're seeing. It works the same way with most American comedies when they send out second unit to get left to right footage of someone traveling and they cover it up with a piece of pop music. In the end all I got from the movie was that they were betting against the housing industry and they were hoping it would fail.

The writing in this movie at times can be a little disjointed by taking away our attention from certain characters and their stories for lengths of time and introducting new character almost half way through the movie.

While some may say this is a step forward for the career of Adam McKay, it really isn't and he just added more drama into one of his comedies takeaway heavy improve. The acting is only thing standing about this movie. Most of the oscar nominations for this movie are dubious decisions and it makes me only wish even more that 99 Homes got the attention that it deserved. This is one of the most over rated movies of 2015.

If you want to see some GFC movies I would recommend Margin Call and 99 Homes. If the movie was as good as the trailer and lived up to the hype it's been getting at award ceremonies it would make a great triple feature with the two aforementioned films but unfortunately no.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

What did you think of this movie if you have seen it? Did it make you want to learn economics so you can understand this movie?

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