THE BIG SHORT  3.8****

    The film begins with narration by Ryan Gosling’s character that addresses the biggest problem the film has, that being that the Housing Market Crash of 2008 was an extremely complicated issue, which is why so few saw it coming. The story is  complicated, because it requires some understanding of how the housing/mortgage system worked at the time, which apparently most of the people running the system at the time didn't understand or even care about so long as they were making huge amounts of money. So  the film ends up teaching the audience how the crash happened. That sounds boring, but the film does a brilliant job by using  hilarious cameos and lacing the overly informational pieces with humor. The film accomplishes the very hard task of making the mess understandable and even teaching  how it went so horribly wrong.

The movie focuses on a group of individuals that foresaw the housing and economic bubble bursts and decided to take advantage of it by buying “short” in  HUGE amounts ( here the “short” was betting that there would be housing market crash)  Among them are a savvy, but socially awkward hedge fund manager (Christian Bale), a short-tempered, no-nonsense trader (Steve Carell), a banker seeking a huge payday (Ryan Gosling) and two young investors that want to make it big (John Margo & Finn Wittrock) — who enlist the help of a retired trader (Brad Pitt).

The Big Short has a great script, with dialogue that just rolls, but in such a complicated movie the acting had to be good. Christian Bale is excellent as the wacky Dr. Michael Burry, embodying the odd personality of the man, and even handling the task of showing a misunderstood genius. The other performer who was terrific was Steve Carell, who has consistently proved that he's not just a great comedy actor. The Big Short proves that he can give a performance with emotional depth, and a sense of humanity.

In the end, The Big Short is a funny, intelligent, well-acted, and interesting view of the few men able to make money when everybody else was losing money hand over fist. The entire ensemble of talented  actors carry their own weight, and some even rise above expectations. Everybody should watch this film because it tells the ever important story of how ignorance and lack of government oversight caused a worldwide meltdown, and that we're apt to do it again if we don't learn from our mistakes.

Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality/nudity 

Clark

NOTE: This movie has 5 Oscar Nominations including Best Picture and Best Director along with Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor. In my opinion it is contending with REVENANT and SPOTLIGHT for Best Picture and probably is the favorite to win.