"The Rich Gets Richer Thats The Law Of The Land"

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2016)

This movie is not for everyone. Movies are meant to tell a story and the story can be about romance, fantasy or adventure. Something that transports you away from reality. But this movie is steeped neck-deep in reality that you'd be gasping for a breath of some good old rom-com.
But i personally loved this movie. Everyone who doesn't live under a rock knows about the Financial Crisis of the 2007-2008, which was attributed to the sub-prime mortgage loans. All very technical and wall-street-esque. But the movie simplifies every technical jargon or complex financial instruments in clever segments where they got celebrities like Margot Robbie and Anthony Bourdain to explain what each of them meant. Clever, simple and entertaining.
Basically the whole movie focuses on 3 groups. Each of them discovers that the housing market, which has been solid for years, will collapse. An impending doomsday. So they bet against the market for a major payday. Morally bankrupt? Questionable. But the movie does explore this as Steve Carrell's character Mark Baum hesitates to sell his position or his "shares" as it would make him similar to "Them". Them being the banks and the financial corporations who were responsible for the collapse.
At its heart, the Big Short touches on the morality of the banking industry and how ignorant the entire country and even the government are of the unethical practises that are happening in Wall Street. It keeps referring to Wall Street like its a place where crooks gather. And in reality, it might actually be.
The movie is definitely not big on dramatic performance but the character portrayals drive the movie. Each of them play their role perfectly and you are interested to see how their stories play out. I was riveted throughout the movie because i was kept intrigued. It was thrilling to see when the market would actually collapse and what would happen to all of the characters when they ultimately proved that their decision was correct. (They were laughed at by the banks)
Its a movie that does not take itself seriously and it has a certain Glengarry Glen Ross charm to it. Without all the vulgarity and salesman bravado inside. To me, the story drives the movie. It was adapted from a book 'The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine' by Michael Lewis and the movie definitely deserve the Academy Award it earned for best adapted screenplay.
There is much to say about the movie but you have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. The movie is like a documentary about the Financial Crisis but told through a story. You will see how it happened, what caused it to happened, feel the same disgust and disappointment the characters felt when they discovered the truth.
The main characters to me are definitely Steve Carell and Christian Bale. Bale's acting on point as always. He has a way of acting like a chameleon. A modern day Daniel Day Lewis. Its really good and i suggest you make time to watch it. If not to understand about the Financial Crisis, then to appreciate a really good story. Its really hard to add style to a movie like this but they did it well.