Movie Review : The Big Short (2015)
The Big Short was about to start when my friend Frankie (with whom I've went to the theater) told me the film is based on true events had an edge other movies didn't. I thought it should theoretically be true, because nobody watches Hollywood movies hoping to get an accurate picture on something that really happened in the age of internet. It's way too easy to find out you've been deceived.
The Big Short had the difficult task of defining itself against Inside Job, the definitive documentary about the American housing market crisis and claim some kind of pertinence. It's a competent movie for sure, but is it pertinent? I don't know. I don't think so.
So, The Big Short is based on The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, a book about the creation of thew credit default swap market by Michael Lewis *. That is basically the story of a small group of trader who understood before everybody that the American housing marke would collapse and decided to bet against it. The key figure of this movement being Michael Burry (played by Christian Bale, and ex-neurologist with Asperger's syndrome who found out about subprime mortgage bonds after spending several days breaking them down. Burry was based in California, but soon Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) on Wall Street caught wind of what was going on and started preparing for the inevitable in their own way.
According to Wikipedia, The Big Short was originally meant to "highlight the eccentric nature of the type of person who bets against the market or goes against the grain." So, you've guessed it. The Big Short’s film adaptation is pretty much an actor's movie and Christian Bale is leading the dance. He's the only one really stepping outside of himself and offering something we haven't seen before. Steve Carell is also a pleasant surprise too and shows that he has dramatic chops. Ryan Goslingis weak link here, which is surprising. Not his fault though, he is handed the easiest part and the best lines, so he never really has to work for it. His interpretation of Jared Vennettis basically just a more outspoken version of his Crazy, Stupid, Love’s character. Even Brad Pitt, who's part is just an afterthought really, casts shadow on Gosling's game.
If you decide to watch it, watch it for Bale.
I wasn't sure that I wanted to watch he Big Short initially because the American housing market crisis really is something I've investigated a lot and I wasn't sure what I would get out of a fictionalized account. One thing that plays in The Big Short’s favor is that it doesn't take itself seriously (for the most part) and that there's an undeniable pleasure to be had at laughing at investment bankers' demise. These guys are documented crooks and yet the American economy is designed for the money to be funneled directly to them, so mockery is our only recourse. Let's not kid ourselves though. The protagonists of The Big Short are not necessarily more virtuous than your run-of-the-mill Wall Street guy. They were only smarter.
The Big Short was a seamless and overall pleasant, albeit gimmicky zeitgiest piece that only plays the honesty card whenever it sees fit. If anything, it speaks of the ethical difficulty of making a "based on true events" film in the age of internet: you're most likely to romanticize something terrible and people are going to call you out on it. So, The Big Shortis theoretically vain and hollow, yet if you make the effort of actually seeing it, you're going to find a competent, fun and oddly satisfying movie. Sometimes you have to overcome your theoretical objections to stuff and carve you own opinion out of the actual material. Sometimes, the struggle is real.
* The guy who wrote Moneyball
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