The Big Short Film Review

Hollywood – Reserve your @ArcLightCinemas seats for tonight’s @thebigshort filmmaker Q&A. https://t.co/Ayzf2EAzF7 pic.twitter.com/igQdd2O8vu

— The Big Short Movie (@thebigshort) February 3, 2016

It’s 2005 and the bankers of Wall Street are celebrating their increasing wealth. The housing market is booming and they could not be happier. Unbeknown to them there is a Global Financial Crisis (GFC) looming, a crisis which nobody saw coming except the protagonists in “The Big Short.”

Based on a true story, the film begins by introducing the eccentric Michael Burry (Christian Bale) a hedge fund manager who through a range of calculations predicts the collapse of the US housing market. As a result, Burry makes a range of bets against the market. Upon hearing of the predictions trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) concludes they are true and decides to follow in Burry’s footsteps. Hedge fund manager Mike Baum (Steve Carrell) and his colleagues stumble across these forecasts, as do young investors Charlie Gellar (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) who are mentored by Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt). The story follows the four different groups over a few years and demonstrates how they deal with the impending crisis and the knowledge they embody.

“The Big Short” was an interesting film but it had many flaws.

The first hour of the film was incredibly slow and it made me bored and restless. Perhaps it was because I was aware of the inevitable GFC and I wanted it to reach the point where it began. However, the writers did prolong certain unnecessary elements such as conversations and character developments. The film was two hours and ten minutes long but at least half an hour could have been cut to ensure the film remained entertaining throughout its entirety.

During the movie I could not help but realise its lack of diversity, essentially it is a film telling the stories of rich white men with the film even referencing this at one stage. It is rather disappointing to watch a film with such little diversity but unfortunately any true story about Wall Street consists primarily of white rich men.

A redeeming quality of “The Big Short” was the cinematography which was exceptional. The film consisted of continuous shots and quick transitions which helped to convey emotion and create a realistic environment. This was paired with a fantastic soundtrack and the use of screenshots to show progression of time.

The storytelling was clever and innovative. It is mostly narrated by Jared Vennett accompanied by characters who act as narrators throughout the film creating a series of fascinating insights. The writers of the film did a brilliant job in helping to explain the difficult economic terms to the audience. At various points the film was stopped and people were brought in to explain the terms in simple yet comedic ways, including cameos from Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez.

Obviously, “The Big Short” is appealing to anyone who is remotely interested in economics and the events of the GFC, however, this is not a prerequisite. At the beginning of the film I feared I would have trouble understanding it as I struggle to understand economics but everything is explained in a simple way.

All in all, I enjoyed “The Big Short”, it was both a comedy and a drama and I thought it explored the GFC in a sensitive yet charismatic way.