No-one expects the global recession.

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2018)

Monty Python famously said 'no-one expects the Spanish inquistion.' And no-one expects a major recession either, or else they'd take action to avoid it. The global economic crisis that struck in 2008 came from a sudden collapse in the housing market, and from the financial products that the banks had created that were essentially a bet on this not happening. Only a few people had predicted it would all end in tears. And Michael Lewis' book, 'The Big Short', here made into a film by Adam McKay, tells the story of those few. What makes the narrative appealing (regardless of how complete a truth it is) is that the few were misfits and outsiders, people denied entry to the club of deluded money market insiders. But the film, though entertaining, is only partially succesful. The explanation of how and why things happened is superficial, while the viewer is essentially being asked to root for one group of wealthy investment managers over another. Some of them denounce the essentially fraudulent nature of the major players, but their personal goals are primarily to get rich themselves by exploiting their discovery. They're also mostly obnoxious, and I'm not so certain that being smart, and right, is enough to make you a hero. As a film, I prefered 'Margin Call', a sympathetic look at the lions of Wall Street laid low by the crash, to this more hostile treatment, even if they did all belong in jail.