The Big Short (2015)

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2019)

Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Jeremy Strong, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Brad Pitt, Rafe Spall, Byron Mann, Adepero Oduye, Melissa Leo, Tracy Letts, Marisa Tomei, Jeffry Griffin. (R)
Dramatized but mostly accurate account of several disparate investors that recognize a devastatingly flawed housing bubble and bet heavily against the mortgage market in the years leading up to the 2008 collapse. As much a real-world horror film as a savage comedy, the filmmakers pinpoint the corruption and hammer it home, making cynical sense out of a cynically insensible series of events. Script (by McKay and Charles Randolph, based on a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis) blends lots of economics jargon and meta-humor, and pulls off the Herculean task of triggering fascination and even entertainment from long conversations about subprime mortgages and bonds and CDO's, while also making people who earn (very comfortable) livings off of the failure of others surprisingly likable, sometimes even sympathetic. (The latter is done primarily by provoking outrage toward the fat cats who knew better and didn't care.) Cast is terrific top-to-bottom, especially Carell as a fed-up trader who lacks a verbal filter; should anyone be surprised, though, that the character who comes closest to having an admirable conscience is played by Pitt, who happens to be a co-producer? Hank Corwin's sensational editing gives the film the pace of a thriller, and it certainly is terrifying at times. One gross miscalculation: thinking it would be easier for the audience to concentrate on an investment lesson if it was delivered by Margot Robbie in a bubble bath. Anthony Bourdain and a couple others also cameo as themselves.
88/100