All of the actors do a fantastic job here. Jeremy Strong is great as the angry Vinnie Daniel. Brad Pitt is downright unrecognizable as Rickert, resembling more of a weird cross between Rainn Wilson and Nick Offerman. His character is an ex-banker who grew tired and disgusted with the system. His Rickert is arguably one of the better people, and has one of the best scenes in the film where he quickly puts two of our protagonists back in their place. Christian Bale does a quirky, memorable performance as Michael Burry. Burry was the first to predict that the housing market would fail. Bale plays him as almost an autistic savant of sorts.
For me, the clear standouts in the cast were Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling. Gosling's Jared Vennett is arguably the worst person out of the bunch. He is indeed one of the main players, but also acts as our narrator and guide, breaking the fourth wall a good deal to talk to us (Other characters do this as well). Gosling plays Jared with a slimy coolness, and I couldn't help but love his character despite the clear fact that he is not a nice guy. Carell's Mark Baum is more-or-less the "hero" of the film (and I use the term hero very, very loosely). Carell is electric here as the outraged Baum, who is disgusted with each sickening fact he discovers about the system he is betting against. He's the easiest character to get behind in the film, and we spend the most amount of time with him.
The film, in reality is devoid of any true good guys. All our protagonists happily shame the banks, corporations, and the system they created as fraudulent and corrupt....however, our protagonists in reality aren't much better than the people and system they are crusading against. They are betting against the American economy, are rejoicing in the fact that it's all about to fail, and are excited about the millions they stand to make in the fallout. Naturally, they start to change their tune when the collapse occurs and they see how much destruction and devastation ensues. I was surprised to find myself reluctantly taking our protagonists sides as the film went on. It's undeniably fun and fascinating to watch them uncover the facts of the situation.
Adam McKay directs, and does a downright phenomenal job. He's well aware that most regular schmoes like myself have zero knowledge about banks, the terms they use, or the way they work. Thus, he stops the film on occasion to present a cool aside which pairs a famous person, doing something cool in order to explain the term or practice to us. I won't even give any examples here, as to do so would ruin the cool little surprises this film has to offer. All I'll say is that each of these segments is bizarre but super fun.
McKay directs the film with an interesting stream of consciousness kind of editing. There are constant fast cuts, still shots, and inserts of music video clips, commercials, and news/interview clips. It's all done in an effort to keep the audience engaged, and for my money it works perfectly. I felt like I was honestly involved with the proceedings, like I was a part of the film. Needless to say, I feel he more than deserves to win Best Director this year.
The Big Short manages a seemingly hard task, but accomplishes it with relative ease: it makes banking fun. It's a lively, colorful film that easily engages audiences. It gets points from me for being unafraid to slow down every now and then to check on audiences and make sure they understand everything that is going on (It also drags a bit at points). The Big Short is a highly entertaining, fantastical, real life cautionary tale (Be prepared to leave more than a bit angry about what happened in '08, and at the banks and corporations that clearly only cared about themselves). It's an important, informative film that luckily, also knows how to have some serious fun. I have no problem with declaring it to be my favorite film of 2015, and also what I consider to be the absolute best of the best.
5 STARS
Some names were changed for the film
Mark Baum's real name is Steve Eisman
Jared Vannett's real name is Greg Lippman
Ben Rickert's real name is Ben Hockett
Jamie Shipley's real name is Jamie Mal
Charlie Geller's real name is Charles Ledley
Some names were changed for the film
Mark Baum's real name is Steve Eisman
Jared Vannett's real name is Greg Lippman
Ben Rickert's real name is Ben Hockett
Jamie Shipley's real name is Jamie Mal
Charlie Geller's real name is Charles Ledley
No comments:
Post a Comment