The Big Short is a facetious (in a good way) biopic from director Adam McKay that focuses on a few financial experts' discovery of the US housing bubble in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. It is based on the book by Michael Lewis (also the author of the books Moneyball and The Blind Side).
The film has a star-studded cast with Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt in pivotal roles, all of whom deliver brilliant performances (I would expect nothing less).
The highlight of the film, however, is not the actors' performances, but the unique screenplay from McKay. Analogies (with dramatic graphics) prevail to explain esoteric concepts like subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations in a lucid way. To make things even better, McKay has brought in a wide array of celebrities - actress Margot Robbie, chef Anthony Bourdain, singer Selena Gomez and economist Richard Thaler - to present the explanations, while directly addressing the audience. Gosling too, who is also the narrator, interacts with the audience throughout the film, providing a background to what's going on. These interactions add a nice, personal touch that make the film almost like a presentation at parts.And finally, the humor. The way in which the story has been told is, in itself, supposed to be amusing (like I said, facetious). McKay has exploited the ignorance of the big banks, media and government to his advantage. The dramatic graphics in the explanations and elsewhere further add to the comedy. These elements give the movie a very satirical feel.
Overall, The Big Short is a very informative, very understandable, very funny and accurate biopic with a star-studded cast that, most importantly, informs the audience unabashedly of what really led to the crash in 2008. There's not much else that you could ask for.
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