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The Big Short
| Released |
2 January 2016 |
| Director |
Adam McKay |
Starring
|
Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Marisa Tomei, Finn Wittrock |
| Writer(s) |
Charles Randolph, Adam McKay |
Producer(s)
|
Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
130 minutes |
| Genre |
Biography, drama |
| Rating |
15A |
|
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Coming up short.
No matter how basic (or non-existent) your understanding of the financial collapse of 2007/8, you will know that at its heart was a simple mantra; “Greed is good.” Although Gordon Gekko's red braces were left behind in the 1980s, his single-minded pursuit of wealth was something that never fell out of fashion on Wall Street. Adam McKay’s The Big Short, based on the non-fiction book by Michael Lewis, looks at the crisis from the perspective of a band of outsiders (played by Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling amongst others), who predicted the fall of the American housing market and decided to bet against it.
Well, that's at least how McKay would like you to look at it, as we are introduced to a group of characters who fell into the once in a lifetime opportunity to put one over on the venal and corrupt banks. The truth is though, that these are not outsiders; they are financial experts who run hedge funds and when given the opportunity to expose the banking sector for its rampant corruption, choose instead to keep their mouths shut and watch the dollars come rolling in. Okay, it is perhaps impossible to produce a film about the housing crisis without filling the screen with odious, swaggering shysters but it is disingenuous to then present them as plucky underdogs.
What McKay does manage to do very well is make a complicated, dry subject palatable for a mainstream, Saturday night audience. His choice of music and use of flashy montages may be a little on the nose but they do add zip to the proceedings, while the cameos from Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez and Anthony Bourdain are a clever way of introducing CDO's, AAA ratings and other pieces of economic jargon.
All of this means that I found The Big Short simultaneously enjoyable and insufferable. The juxtaposition between the serious subject matter and the self-conscious gimmickry of the direction is a little disturbing – and not in an enjoyably debauched Wolf of Wall Street way. The impressive ensemble cast are all competent but unremarkable in a film that is diverting but ultimately over-rated.
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Linda O'Brien |
