'The Big Short' (2015) - Movie Review

The Big Short is a movie directed by Adam McKay starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and John Magaro.

The Big Short Trailer (2015) ‐ Paramount Pictures

The Big Short (2015) Review

Adam McKay directs The Big Short, an exceptional film starring none other than Christian Baler, Steve Carell… and so many others such as Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling. Who said actors were dumb? When they see a good script, they smell it and manage to work on it. The Big Short is a story about… Well, it’s hard to explain. Let’s say I order a hamburger, but the hamburger comes with something I don’t want but, by God, I have to eat it… but, since I want the hamburger and not the Sub-Prime (junk mortgages to fill out the ‘cool’ ones) I keep ordering hamburgers until one day they have to take me to the hospital because what I was doing, oh surprise, was not good. Well, that’s more or less what happened and when you sign a mortgage contract with the dog (Jack, I’m sorry, you’re very handsome and nice, but economically you’re more or less like me, dude). The movie expresses it way better but the truth is that the mess created by the banks (and mutual funds to a lesser extent), was a hecatomb from which we are still recovering (Obama was supposed to put some measures in place to avoid these little inconveniences, but Trump has promised to liberalize all this, I love America).

Image from the movie "La gran apuesta" — The Big Short (2015)

Is it a scary movie? In theory it should be but if you like comedy you’ll enjoy it and if you’re into trying (as much as possible, we’re not magicians) to understand the markets, you’ll find it very interesting. It has a prank tone from the first quote by Mark Twain (another who went bankrupt, by the way) and above all the interpretation of the actors, each one in his place knowing that they are part of an important project to shed light on a rather complex situation.

The only thing is that you are left with the desire to have a billion to bet short. Yes, I would have done it too.

If you don’t have the billion, enjoy it, it’s worth it.

The Director

Adam McKay

Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian. McKay began his career in the 1990s as a head writer for the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live for two seasons and is the co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade. He rose to fame in the 2000s for his collaborations with comedian Will Ferrell and co-wrote his comedy films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay later co-wrote and co-produced numerous television series and films, and produced their comedy website Funny or Die through their company Gary Sanchez Productions. Venturing into more dramatic territory in the 2010s, McKay’s The Big Short was the first film he directed without Ferrell in the cast. For this film, he was nominated for several awards including two Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (with co-writer Charles Randolph), and two British Academy Film Awards, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Read More