Surprisingly Awesome

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2016)

Adam McKay (the director of Anchorman and Step Brothers) has recently teamed up with Adam Davidson to create a new podcast for Gimlet Media. The premise is simple: take a topic that sounds incredibly uninteresting and present it in a unique light such that people are pleasantly surprised. Recent topics include "mold" and the breakup of the band Chumbawumba. They call it "Surprisingly Awesome". The launch of this podcast coincides with the release of this film which is essentially a feature length visual-driven extension of the series focusing on the subprime mortgage crisis. Throughout, Ryan Gosling serves as our narrator, taking us swiftly through the history of finance and who occasionally breaks the fourth wall as if engaging the audience in a discussion. Instead of lecturing us on esoteric financial terms, though, he cuts to Margot Robbie (in a bathtub), Selena Gomez (at a blackjack table), or Anthony Bourdain (in his kitchen) to illustrate these concepts in a humorous yet accurate manner. Yet McKay takes this one step beyond amusing lecture. He gives us great character development and he builds great suspense despite his audience knowing the ultimate outcome. This is an engaging, humorous and sobering film on an important period of recent history. It may not be enough to incite reform, but it is a powerful piece that can be added to the conversation.