Some of it was beyond my understanding, but I still really liked it

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2016)

Comedic director Adam McKay (best known for his collaborations with Will Ferrell, like Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers) makes a foray into drama (though with plenty of comedic touches) with this film about the American housing collapse of the mid-2000s. The story has a great structure, with three different sets of people who were at the forefront of predicting the crisis and hope to make money off of it. Christian Bale is the first to see it. Later, banker Ryan Gosling catches wind of Bale's odd investments and figures it out. He accidentally alerts Steve Carell, and then has to team up with Carell and his crew. Third, a couple of young hedge fund managers (John Magaro and Finn Wittrock) hear about it and team up with former neighbor Brad Pitt to get in on the action. The problem with me here is that this is a subject I have a hard time grasping. McKay, however, is great at making it all understandable, or at least halfway so, and he's definitely great at making it all involving and entertaining. The entire ensemble is great. I'd name Bale the best in show, and I'm not usually a big Bale fan. Personally, I'd hold this up against Spotlight, which is similar in a lot of ways (you might think of the characters here as journalists trying to figure this all out), and say this is the way to make a film like this well. McKay's direction isn't overly showy, either, but he makes this exciting and interesting. Much of this is through the editing, which is some of the best of the year. I left Spotlight thinking, "Eh, that's too bad." I left The Big Short feeling angry.