The Big Short

The makers of The Big Short were fortunately conscious of how indigestible a film overloaded with names, numbers, abbreviations and the uncovering of complicated relationships between the individual components of the investment market would be. Therefore, they conceived the film as a two-hour shouting match between a few eccentrics, speaking in advanced economic gibberish instead of human language. Without resigning itself to fidelity to the facts, The Big Short attempts to tell the story as graphically as possible and with the detached humour found in The Wolf of Wall Street. However, McKay is no Scorsese, especially in terms of storytelling abilities. Our guide on the path to economic disaster is Jared Vennett, who occasionally turns directly to the camera or stops the flow of the narrative to gleefully shed light on the tricks that the big fish on Wall Street use. But his own tricks quickly become predictable. The breaking of the fourth wall by the plain-spoken narrator is mainly a means of distraction, not – as in Wolf – an essential part of a well-thought-out narrative strategy. Similarly, the film randomly intersperses the exaggerated comedy with moments of existential crisis for the increasingly helpless Baum (the scenes with his wife are among the most unnecessary of the whole film, which is rather regrettable, given the casting of Marisa Tomei). Also distracting is the hyperkinetic editing and shaky camerawork by Barry Ackroyd, who shoots the sharp exchanges of opinion in the enclosed offices as frantic (Greengrass-esque) action. From start to finish, he zooms, refocuses and pans with admirable energy, resulting in the blending of scenes that are crucial for the narrative with others in which nothing essential happens. Neither the pacing nor the urgency with which the film speaks to us is developed. The film is monotonous, lacks suspense and surprises, and is rather more reminiscent of a PowerPoint presentation than a drama that is funny in places, but you have to force yourself to pay attention to it for the whole two hours. It helps a lot that some of Hollywood’s most charismatic actors vie for our attention; they are excellent especially in the brazenly farcical moments. The partially improvised scenes involving them shouting each other down are among the highlights of the film. Due to the shallowness of their characters, however, they have nothing on which to base their performances during the more serious moments. The same can be said of The Big Short as a whole. As merely a cynical comedy ridiculing people who make million-dollar transactions with no more thought than evacuating their bowels, it is highly entertaining. As a warning against the inherent rottenness of capitalism, it falls flat. 70% (02/28/2016)

Immediately after watching the movie - albeit reluctantly and with considerable hesitation - I awarded the film a dirty four stars because there is never enough criticism of greed and spinelessness. However, I am writing this comment sometime later, when the shortcomings of the script have fully revealed themselves. While it does analyze the causes of the economic crisis of the memorable year 2008, it does so in a somewhat cumbersome and less understandable way for the average viewer. The Big Short does not work as a captivating story with charismatic characters, such as in The Wolf of Wall Street, nor is it an intimate drama that exposes human characters to the core in a borderline situation, as was the case in Margin Call. In the realm of movies depicting the nefarious activities of financial institutions and discussing the crisis of trust in modern Western society, this film simply does not belong to the top tier. Overall impression: 60%. (10/03/2022)

Drowned in their own ambitions. The creators want so much to be the authors of a gripping wake-up call that they are almost unwatchable at their core. All the economic ranting lacks the bigger dramatic arc that propelled, for example, The Wolf of Wall Street, which the screenwriters obviously adore (evidenced not least by the ubiquitous and overly aggressive satire). Some personal stories make brief appearances here too, but due to the dilution of attention among the dozens involved, they vanish into oblivion. I understand that if you're going to discuss economics and mortgages for over two hours in a hundred and one different ways, we will have to immerse ourselves in professional terminology, but we still didn't really need that many. The constant dissection of more and more future financial catastrophes is downright tiring in the final act, it doesn't move the plot forward and merely redirects it into a screenwriter's twist it has already taken several times before. It's been a while since I was last this bothered over actors (in this case, the chameleonic Christian Bale and explosive Steve Carell) performing at full steam without managing to interest me in the consequences of their characters' actions. (01/06/2016)

A Little bit like Margin Call, a little bit like The Wolf of Wall Street, a little bit like John Oliver... Pell-mell, which holds together despite all assumptions and the creators do not play it safe. On the contrary, McKay has a nicely subversive and viewer-friendly approach to a topic that is difficult to grasp. His approach is perhaps too inconsistent (but thanks to this, it is exceptionally dynamic) and where "each of the great cast" steals a show for some time, but as a result, he managed to make a film that sheds light on the financial crisis in such a way that it works both dramatically and comedically (in the best moments even within the same scene) and, in addition, it was understandable even to those who have no idea what financial market is about. (01/16/2016)

Bombastic! An atomic bomb. The horror of a mortgage in its most nightmarish form. And again emerges my favorite topic, dumb and irresponsible people. I don’t want to pretend that I understood everything, no way. And Margot Robbie in the bath was more distracting than helpful in explaining, but I have a feeling that fundamentally it isn’t so complicated after all. Good old untruths and lies. In terms of acting, The Big Short is wholesome, from Bale thru Pitt. Everyone wrings out the maximum from their role, Steve Carell dominates again (where was he all those years when dramas were knocking on the door?), he rediscovered himself in this movie. Adam McKay was a surprise. The end of the American dream presented with humor and tension. You have to see it more than once. (02/07/2016)