• Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket

DVD Review – The Big Short (2015)

May 24, 2016 by Amie Cranswick

The Big Short, 2015.

Directed by Adam McKay.
Starring Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Finn Wittrock, Max Greenfield, Melissa Leo, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Tracy Letts, John Magaro, Jeremy Strong, Marissa Tomei, Karen Gillan, Stanley Wong, Byron Mann, Margot Robbie, and Selena Gomez.

SYNOPSIS:

Four denizens of the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000’s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.

There’s a moment a few minutes into The Big Short where, after you’ve been bombarded with the ins and outs of mortgage backed securities and sub-prime loans, you are watching Margot Robbie in a bubble bath and drinking champagne, explain in layman’s terms, US mortgage bonds. Strangely, this isn’t an attempt to bamboozle you further, or to join in with the banks’ deliberate obfuscation of ‘high finance’ – it’s actually a perfectly orchestrated, 4th wall breaking rejoinder that has the effect of making you listen up, and neatly sums up Adam McKay’s deliriously entertaining stab at the heart of what happened to the global economy in 2008.

Our window into the inevitable cataclysm comes via three different Wall Street funds, led by Christian Bale’s Dr Michael Burry, a socially awkward, death metal loving, numbers genius; the tightly wound Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) who walks a tightrope of profit making finance and social conscience, and a ‘garage band’ outfit run by two young up and comers, Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro). Thrown into the mix are Brad Pitt’s bank hating and humanity loving retired trader, Ben Rickert, and the devilish narrator of the ensuing meltdown, Jared Vennett (a curly be-wigged, charmingly horrendous, Ryan Gosling).

It’s Michael Burry who first spots, back in 2005, the financial fragility that the banks are blindly building their straw houses on, which basically amounts to loading toxic investments into the money version of the emperor’s new clothes. To Burry it’s a simple case of playing the numbers. To Gosling’s Vennett, who picks up the Burry rumbles from a self-satisfied stockbroker in a bar, it’s the steal of the century, and it isn’t long before he persuades Mark Baum and his team to get on board. For story-telling simplicity’s sake the two youngsters, Shipley and Geller, get their heads up from Vennett’s own draft proposal left behind in the lobby of J P Morgan. The actual truth is slightly more convoluted, as the film-makers enjoy making clear in another 4th wall breaking aside.

In fact, making the convoluted finances of the sub-prime mortgage debacle 8 years ago not only vaguely intelligible, but fun to watch, is the real wizardry at work here, and any further explanation of where and how the wheels came off would just detract from the enjoyment of watching it unfold. It is essentially the greatest Hollywood-sprinkled NPR drama-documentary never made.

Some may balk at the use (or over-use) of asides to camera, and talking heads to pause and explain complex concepts, but where else are you going to experience the sight (and sound) of Professor of Behavioural Science and Economics, Richard Thaler PhD, and pop princess Selena Gomez explain Synthetic CDOs over a poker table in Las Vegas.

If you’re not sure what a CDO is, by the time The Big Short comes to a close those three letters will come to represent vainglorious greed in the extreme; and it’s in Vegas at a Mortgage Securities Convention that all the whiz-bang fun and games muddy into the actual horror of what’s happening. As Pitt’s Ben Rickerts says to the two youngsters after they celebrate another potential windfall deal, ‘You just bet against the American economy. If we’re right, people lose jobs, people lose homes…’

It would have been easy to just populate this kind of story with a bunch of instantaneously hateful characters, but the author of the original book, Michael Lewis, was smart enough to focus on those who, although they work in the rarefied world of big money, are actually recognisably human. McKay, and his writing partner Charles Randolph, have managed to take that original tome and idea, and with near perfect casting (Carrell and Bale being the standouts), construct magnificent movie entertainment out of catastrophic collapse.

A little word of warning though – there is ultimately little catharsis for your watching trouble. In the end you can’t help feeling a little dirty, unable to help yourself enjoying a rare movie mix of popcorn and scalpel sharp insight; and the aftermath of cleverness, stupidity and greed.

The Big Short is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital. Buy it on AMAZON UK or AMAZON US

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Mark Clark

. url=”.” . width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng

Filed Under: Mark Clark, Movies, Reviews Tagged With: Adam McKay, Brad Pitt, Byron Mann, Christian Bale, Finn Wittrock, Hamish Linklater, Jeremy Strong, John Magaro, Karen Gillan, Margot Robbie, Marissa Tomei, max greenfield, Melissa Leo, Rafe Spall, Ryan Gosling, Selena Gomez, Stanley Wong, Steve Carell, the big short, Tracy Letts

About Amie Cranswick

Amie Cranswick has been part of Flickering Myth’s editorial and management team for over a decade. She has a background in publishing and copyediting and has served as Editor-in-Chief of FlickeringMyth.com since 2023.

FMTV – Watch Our Latest Video Here

WATCH OUR MOVIE NOW FOR FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

10 Essential Action Movies from 2005

The Essential Exorcism Movies of the 21st Century

7 Rotten Horror Movies That Deserve A Second Chance

Great Mob Movies You Might Have Missed

10 Essential DC Movies

Great Vampire Movies You May Have Missed

10 Great Movies from the Once-Dominant Carolco Pictures

15 Great Feel-Good Sing-a-Long Movies

The Essential Modern Day Swashbucklers

The Queens of the B-Movie

Top Stories:

6 Great Australian Crime Movies of the 1980s

7 Underrated World War II Romance Movies

Great Tarantino-esque Movies You Need To See

Whatever Happened to the Horror Icon?

The Rise of Paul Thomas Anderson: A Living Legend

Movie Review – Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Movie Review – Hot Milk (2025)

Movie Review – Heads of State (2025)

STREAM FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

FEATURED POSTS:

The Most Disturbing Horror Movies of the 1980s

The Shining at 45: The Story Behind Stanley Kubrick’s Psychological Horror Masterpiece

The Bonkers Comedies of Andrew McCarthy

The Essential Modern Conspiracy Thrillers

Our Partners

  • Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

© Flickering Myth Limited. All rights reserved. The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content without permission is strictly prohibited. Movie titles, images, etc. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you can read this, you don't need glasses.


 

Flickering MythLogo Header Menu
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket