Interesting, fun, and depressing

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2016)

"The Big Short" from 2015 is another look at the big crash of 2006- 2007 which wrecked the housing market, the bank, brokerage firms, and lots and lots of people.
There were, in this true story, a few investors who realized that the mortgage-backed securities business was a big fraud with nothing underneath it, and they bet against it. But they didn't understand how deep the corruption of the banks went and just how bad the crash was going to be for everyone.
The film stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei, and Brad Pitt with some interesting guests, including Chef Bourdain and Selena Gomez, brought in to explain aspects of the mortgage-backed securities. I've seen so many different films and documentaries about the crash, but this makes the story really understandable.
The director, Adam McKay, has an excellent handle on what could have been a confusing, muddled film. He not only gives us some excellent characters but a clear understanding of the situation, rendering it comical. Like Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room documentary, the things the SEC, brokers, etc., are willing to overlook or simply not check because of greed is outrageous.
One thing that bugged me - the character Christian Bale plays, Dr. Michael Burry, one of the people that realized the fraud, has a "glass eye." Why must people continue to use that term? Does anyone realize how heavy a glass eye is? Artificial eyes have been made of a light acrylic for decades, yet this term is constantly used.
I am not sure how they did it, but the same thing was done in "Valkyrie" -- somehow at certain angles, the artificiality is indicated with a slightly droopy upper lid or a lack of energy - remarkable. Also, the way it would occasionally bother Bale was subtle but accurate.
Standouts in the film, besides Bale, are Pitt as an ex-broker who helps a new firm, Steve Carell as an outspoken broker, and Melissa Leo in a small but effective role as someone working for the SEC, and Hamish Linklater as Porter Collins, one of the men interviewing brokers and clients, trying to get some answers.
This is such a disturbing story, all the more horrible because of its ramifications and the fact that absolutely nothing was done about it. The banks were bailed out and paid big bonuses with the money. No one went to prison, any reform was stopped -- because the corporations are the ones who call the shots.
The big question asked here by several brokers of the banks is, how are you screwing us? Good question. And they're still doing it.