The Big Short

artvandulet

Has anyone seen this yet? Watched it last night and it's fantastic. Possibly my favourite movie of the year.
Has a very Wolf Of Wall Street feel to it to me - it's wall street based, true story, very funny, narrated. Just no debauchery! Great cast too. Highly recommend.

TitianGerm

artvandulet wrote: »

Has anyone seen this yet? Watched it last night and it's fantastic. Possibly my favourite movie of the year.
Has a very Wolf Of Wall Street feel to it to me - it's wall street based, true story, very funny, narrated. Just no debauchery! Great cast too. Highly recommend.

Watched it yesterday as well and I have to saw I found it very good.

One of my favourite movies of 2015

Bongalongherb

That's the first one on my list for later so it's good to hear that it's worth a watch.

TitianGerm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

That's the first one on my list for later so it's good to hear that it's worth a watch.

I'd also recommend Concussion with Will Smith. Very good film based on the NFL cover up of the problems caused to players by repeated concussion.

Bongalongherb

I watched Concussion the other day, I found it a very good film. I never knew they were covering up all of this so it was very interesting indeed.

e_e

I found Wolf of Wall Street to be one of the glibbest, most smug and empty films of the last few years.

I'm hoping this is the film (incisive, funny, surprising, thought-provoking) I wanted that to be.

Luckycharms_74

Watched it last night and really enjoyed it.
Some standout performances especially by Christian Bale and his portrayal of Michael Burry.
One of the best movies of 2015 IMHO

Another movie worth watching is "Inside Job"

karma_

This film is excellent... although I'm now, after watching, convinced that we will see global economic armageddon in my lifetime... eek!!

Luckycharms_74

karma_ wrote: »

This film is excellent... although I'm now, after watching, convinced that we will see global economic armageddon in my lifetime... eek!!

I think you are correct. I read this and it shows nothing changed since the crash, CDO's just repackaged.

wp_rathead

Great movie, although I have to admit the whole "breaking the fourth wall" is getting rather tiresome in screenplays lately

karma_

wp_rathead wrote: »

Great movie, although I have to admit the whole "breaking the fourth wall" is getting rather tiresome in screenplays lately

Ye know I get ye, I really do. The 4th wall is something that works very rarely in my opinion, but here, for me at least it just does.

Ipso

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

I think you are correct. I read this and it shows nothing changed since the crash, CDO's just repackaged.

If you liked the movie, you should find this article interesting.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405

The CDO's in themselves aren't too bad, the problem was the amount of horrible loans passed off as good ones

wp_rathead

karma_ wrote: »

Ye know I get ye, I really do. The 4th wall is something that works very rarely in my opinion, but here, for me at least it just does.

I just felt they could have made it that tad bit better had they dropped that gimmick - that said some of the analogies used to explain what the banks were doing were very well done

Mainly I rolled my eyes at bit where

the two friends "find" the portfolio in the lobby and the voice over goes "well this isn't really how they found it, they heard it from a guy from another guy".

I just found it so fecking smug

FortuneChip

e_e wrote: »

I found Wolf of Wall Street to be one of the glibbest, most smug and empty films of the last few years.

I'm hoping this is the film (incisive, funny, surprising, thought-provoking) I wanted that to be.

I think the main difference in this is that the characters are actually likeable.
They're not those way over-the-top stereotypes portrayed in Wolf Of Wall Street. These guys our called "outsiders" so they're much easier to be empathetic with.

Steve Carrell was excellent, and Bale was top notch.

Funny yet infuriating, intelligent yet accessible. Just a very appealing movie.

Dempsey

Good film that explains the stuff the financial sector got up to. Seems lessons have not been learned and not enough people went to jail.

LuckyLloyd

As a fan of the book and an avid reader into the causes of the housing crises generally I couldn't wait for this one and gave it a look on Saturday. I thought it was brilliant and - like the source material - probably the most digestible film made on the topic to date. If Chandor's Margin Call was a well made and interesting film and Inside Job was appropriately serious and detailed - The Big Short is cool, funny and angry. Very ****ing angry.

It's also a well crafted period piece - there is a flair for the details of dress, music and technology of the specific time period portrayed. While that stuff should be simple, it's a testament to the overall quality of the film that little things like office furniture, keyboards and monitor types have been thought through properly.

In terms of the performances, there is lots to enjoy from the heavy hitters with Carrel and Gosling relishing their scenery chewing opportunities (Gosling's presentation of his trade is sure to become an ubiquitous youtube clip) and Bale immersing himself in the Michael Burry portrayal. But there's rarely a bum note from the supporting cast either as the sharp script provides easy wins in most scenes.

That there are too many holes in the fourth wall throughout the film is a valid criticism - it is used very well for the 'explanation' sequences, but becomes overused as a cheap quip mechanism elsewhere.

It's of course hard to say what an audience less interested in the core subject matter will make of The Big Short. I think it's important that we have this film - one that isn't afraid to laugh out loud at how stupid and greedy the world became during the bubble and then snarl at the injustice that was the dealing out of consequences in the aftermath. For me it is a very timely piece - as prosperity begins to ramp up again in the first world it is no harm to be reminded of the prelude to the last major recession. And when that reminder is as outright fun as this is it may have a shot of finding a wide audience.

JP Liz V1

Has this been released here already?

Zaph

Saw an ad for it earlier. Out on the 22nd.

Ally Dick

Thought it was poor. The smartass way the celebrities "explained" the financial terms to camera was irritating. The heavy metal which accompanied a lot of the scenes involving Christian Bale were annoying too. Carell was good. Didn't find the ending satisfactory. It's no Wall Street. 5/10

ButtersSuki

Haven't read the book (have read extensively on the subject however) and saw the movie between Christmas and New year in the US. here's what I posted in the what have you watched recently thread:

The Big Short had a few hours to kill before a flight home the other day and went to see this in 'Merica. It tells the story of the financial crash of 2008 from a relatively new angle; that tiny minority who saw it coming and bet everything on it happening to make themselves insanely rich. Strong performances from Christian Bale (as usual) and a very bizarre looking Ryan Gosling and a decent supporting cast (too many to mention), but the standout for me is Steve Carell. I'm a big fan of The US Office, but in this and in Foxcatcher Carell shows a depth I doubt many would have given him credit for previously. Carell seems to be the only one suffering a crisis of conscience when faced with the realisation of the consequences of what he's doing, but ultimately he does it, which makes you wonder is he any better than those he despises? It has some weird turns and bizarre cameos (Selena Gomes explaining CDOs for instance), and it breaks the fourth wall a few times and to be honest I think they took a little from the film, but maybe I'm being grumpy and would just have preferred a really deep and intense drama that few other people would have liked (lol)? There's a lot of montages and music from certain important years in the arc of the story that sometimes drifts and tells the tale in an MTV-like way, which is fine I guess....I think what they were trying to do is possibly make quite a complicated and relatively boring subject matter more interesting and certainly sexier to a wider audience, and, in fairness, I think they achieved that.

It's not as good as Inside Job or Client 9 (which both touch lightly on this aspect of the crash), nor is it as deep and thorough in its research and exploration of the subject matter, but it is very interesting and engaging. It has some flaws, as it's produced by Plan B there's the obligatory Brad Pitt + Southern Accent appearance for one . All that said, on a first viewing I'd give it a strong 7.5/10, but I will revisit this on a second viewing as I was very tired at the time of the screening.



Extra:
I get the praise for Bale, but he could play Mrs. Brown and he'd knock it out of the park; but Carell for me is the star here. I don't think Bale is in it enough, in a 2hour plus movie he has maybe 5 scenes from memory. I will likely go again when it's released here.

Aidric

I work in finance so I'm naturally drawn to movies on the matter and more so how close the production is to reality.

The Enron documentary is still the benchmark for me, perhaps because it was a well researched piece with input from the main players without the need for mainstream actors to break down the finer details.

I completely understand the 4th wall element of the big short as a vehicle to break down the nuances of finance that wouldn't be clear to the layman. Appropriately they exposed the myth that these guys actually had any idea what they were doing. The meetings with the Goldman Sachs guys and the estate agents bore this out.

Gosling was good but mainly because he had the best material to work with. Pitt and Bale coasted through admirably but Carell was the standout. I've read all of Lewis's books and I think he has done a great service in telling stories from the inside in a language that's engaging. Carell came closest to the mark in representing his voice.

take everything

Really looking forward to this. Based on the book of the same name.
Basically a film about the 2008 global financial crisis. With some pretty big-name actors. Bale, Pitt, Gosling.

Inside Job is an amazing documentary about the same subject and I enjoyed Margin Call and Wolf of Wall Street but this could be very interesting.

Thoughts?

Whosthis

It's a great movie. My pick of this year's Oscars bunch. Gets to the root of the financial collapse in a manner that doesn't require a financial degree to understand without dumbing it down. The absolute absurdity of what was going on with the banks is hard to comprehend. I'd advise everybody to watch it.

errlloyd

Whosthis wrote: »

Gets to the root of the financial collapse in a manner that doesn't require a financial degree to understand without dumbing it down.

I do have a degree that covers finance and It definitely dumbs it down.

"here's Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain what a cdo is".

Frankly that was pretty misogynistic and disappointing. The movie by neccisisity was going to have an all male cast. The only major roll women had were as Margot Robbie to be naked in a bath, and strippers to act as an example of "dumb investors"

Whosthis

errlloyd wrote: »

I do have a degree that covers finance and It definitely dumbs it down.

"here's Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain what a cdo is".

Frankly that was pretty misogynistic and disappointing. The movie by neccisisity was going to have an all male cast. The only major roll women had were as Margot Robbie to be naked in a bath, and strippers to act as an example of "dumb investors"

everything is misogynistic these days.

errlloyd

Whosthis wrote: »

everything is misogynistic these days.

Just to clarify, I don't have any issue with the fact that pretty much the whole main cast, The director, The screen writer and the producers were all male. That's fine. It's just annoying they topped all of that institutionally necessary sexism with the pointless Margot Robbie scene.

A bit like the anal sex at the end of kingsman.

ButtersSuki

errlloyd wrote: »

Just to clarify, I don't have any issue with the fact that pretty much the whole main cast, The director, The screen writer and the producers were all male. That's fine. It's just annoying they topped all of that institutionally necessary sexism with the pointless Margot Robbie scene.

A bit like the anal sex at the end of kingsman.

The director is mainly known for comedy up to this point. I may be making a false assumption here but I think the Robbie scene is nod/wink to...maybe even p*ss pull of The Wolf Of Wall Street (which was gratuitous in its nudity).

TBH, I think you're going a little out of your way to be offended by this. It's not a documentary.....it's entertainment.

errlloyd

ButtersSuki wrote: »

TBH, I think you're going a little out of your way to be offended by this. It's not a documentary.....it's entertainment.

I never said I was offended. I just thought it was poor form. There is a real spotlight on this sort of stuff right now,

Here it's a great film, deserves it's Oscar nods. I'd recommend it to anyone. I just thought that in a year where the world is hyper sensitive to gender issues they had such pointless misogyny.

take everything

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

As a fan of the book and an avid reader into the causes of the housing crises generally I couldn't wait for this one and gave it a look on Saturday. I thought it was brilliant and - like the source material - probably the most digestible film made on the topic to date. If Chandor's Margin Call was a well made and interesting film and Inside Job was appropriately serious and detailed - The Big Short is cool, funny and angry. Very ****ing angry.

It's also a well crafted period piece - there is a flair for the details of dress, music and technology of the specific time period portrayed. While that stuff should be simple, it's a testament to the overall quality of the film that little things like office furniture, keyboards and monitor types have been thought through properly.

In terms of the performances, there is lots to enjoy from the heavy hitters with Carrel and Gosling relishing their scenery chewing opportunities (Gosling's presentation of his trade is sure to become an ubiquitous youtube clip) and Bale immersing himself in the Michael Burry portrayal. But there's rarely a bum note from the supporting cast either as the sharp script provides easy wins in most scenes.

That there are too many holes in the fourth wall throughout the film is a valid criticism - it is used very well for the 'explanation' sequences, but becomes overused as a cheap quip mechanism elsewhere.

It's of course hard to say what an audience less interested in the core subject matter will make of The Big Short. I think it's important that we have this film - one that isn't afraid to laugh out loud at how stupid and greedy the world became during the bubble and then snarl at the injustice that was the dealing out of consequences in the aftermath. For me it is a very timely piece - as prosperity begins to ramp up again in the first world it is no harm to be reminded of the prelude to the last major recession. And when that reminder is as outright fun as this is it may have a shot of finding a wide audience.

That's what I'm hoping with this. Inside Job is a great film but as with other films like Margin Call etc it's something most people haven't seen or are interested in seeing. The big names in this and the story (and humour) might properly bring the absurd venality of the financial world to the masses. And as the other poster said, fairly timely as well.

razorblunt

Ally Dick wrote: »

Thought it was poor. The smartass way the celebrities "explained" the financial terms to camera was irritating. The heavy metal which accompanied a lot of the scenes involving Christian Bale were annoying too. Carell was good. Didn't find the ending satisfactory. It's no Wall Street. 5/10

But the ending is THE ending, all this happened.

I loved the book, I love the way Lewis writes and makes the subject accessible.
Really liked Gosling in this but it really is Carell's movie.

The 4th wall stuff didn't annoy me too much as it was effectively running along a pseudo documentary line anyway but if felt it could have done without one of the lead characters doing the narration.

Great to see the Ratings Agencies hung out to dry too, Inside Man was equally dismissive of them.

PressRun

Thought this was excellent. I was already interested in the subject matter and found the film a highly entertaining depiction of the events of the crash. It's a timely topic and pretty infuriating, quite effectively showing the kind of sociopaths that seem to be attracted to finance. The central characters, however, are quite sympathetic and the performances are top notch, particularly Bale and Carrell. Supporting cast is great too.

The person I saw it with wasn't as familiar with the topic as I was and did find it a bit difficult to keep up with the financial language. They said afterwards that there were bits of dialogue where they just didn't understand what was being said, so I wouldn't be sure that it's accessible to everyone. Definitely worth a watch though. I thought it was an intelligent film.

figges

Saw this a couple of nights ago.
Thought it was good, flawed in places. Unusual, maybe unique, in trying to make a comedy out of a financial crisis - that's tricky and it didn't always work. There is quite a bit of technical jargon - which is introduced in a kind of Finance for dummies kind of way - which is funny and usually works.
As to enjoying it - well I would say the majority of the audience (yt included) were lost on the financials by the end, but we had all got the gist. But it is one of the most significant films I've seen so I'm glad i went.
So I would urge anyone with the vaguest interest into why we are all still paying for what happened nearly a decade ago to see it.
Christian Bale is excellent (as always) as the soothsayer, Ryan Gosling is spot on as the ultra assured, utterly superior trader with an excellent comic lapdog in tow. But Steve Carell (hedge fund manager) is the heart of the story. I saw a review which described his character as one tone - which may have a ring of truth to it but it totally misses the point. His character is angry, angry as hell. And though he plays a hedge fund manager, with his own issues, his underlying attitude could /should/is/maybe that of the viewer, as a response to what he sees unfolding in front of him.
Go see it - it will cost you a fraction of what the actions this film portrays have cost you in the last decade.
As to who the real heroes and villains of the piece are, why to me this is only half the story and why this film leaves me feeling like Steve Carells character feels, that's going to have to go into a follow up post in a different forum.

e_e

Wow I loved this movie. It's formally exciting, intelligent, surprising, witty and emotionally engaging. Was almost trying to talk myself down from a full 5 star rating on Letterboxd but I seriously can't think of a thing I didn't like here. Who knew that the director of Step Brothers and Talladega Nights would make the definitive film on the 2008 financial crisis? Maybe the biggest pleasant surprise I've had at the movies in months.

Deco99

Very much in the minority I assume when I say.it was a big disappointment. I expect alot more from the best picture front runner. Cant see it winning unless its a subject matter vote as opposed to an actual content and quality vote, bit like Crash winning for covering racism. Margin Call was a superior film and Inside job covered the content better. The cheap use of celebs was not for me, nor the fourth wall, the forced soundtrack to place it at the time didnt feel natural. Steve Carell's character and outrage trying to pull the emotional strings felt empty to me. Maybe not his fault because it didnt fit with the rest of the film. 5/10

take everything

Saw it yesterday. Very impressed.
Great performances all round. Bale and Carrell especially.

Love the rating agency scene. Her ridiculous shades were a nice symbol of how wilfully blind they were. Both the funniest and most depressing scene in the film.

Lost me a bit in the 15 minutes before the denouement with all the selling etc but overall very accessible.

Edit: actually only thing they didn't delve into was how Goldman shafted AIG and just Goldman's bigger part in betting against the market while praising it. From what I gather this was a big part of how they survived and the others went down.

johnny_ultimate

Have to say I couldn't warm to this at all. Couldn't shake the feeling that it was a documentary ("the triangular hole") shoved haphazardly into a feature film form ("the square peg"). That wasn't just because I'd seen Inside Job, either. It was a film that made constant use of documentary filmmaking tools - the incessant narration, (clumsy) photo montages and explicit 'explainers' obviously, but right down to the very visual language of the filmmaking. It adopts a sort of contrived cinema verite style that ultimately occupies an awkward middle-ground between fly-on-the-wall and more traditionally composed cinematography. It's an interesting choice that sadly doesn't quite work, especially when combined with the more obviously considered, sub-Scorsese/Soderbergh attempts at stylisation. It also just sort sorts of 'gives up' visually in its second half - dropping many of the tools that, while flawed in execution, at least lent the film an overall visual identity.

While the material is inherently interesting and complicated, the film is ultimately hamstrung by its need to spend so much time explaining every damn thing - and often in quite a condescending way (the celebrity cutaways seem satirical in tone, but IMO kinda adhere to the very same thing they're making fun of). It doesn't help that the actual stories driving the plot aren't always particularly engaging - although I do admire that they avoided the temptation to pull them together for some sort of contrived dramatic climax.

When it focuses on Carrell's character's complex moral response to the situation he finds himself, you're left with the etchings of a more coherent, focused film, and one where the righteous indignation engages more than the sterility and the strained fourth wall breaking elsewhere. There is an argument that the last act wouldn't work without the preceding two, but overall it the whole thing was simply too haphazardly put together to work IMO.

That said, there's value to The Big Short if it does reach an audience that may not be familiar with the more robust films and books on the subject, even if it employs some incredibly cheap tools to get its message across. And, for all its flaws, it's probably still better than I would have imagined a film about the financial crisis starring Steve Carrell and directed by Adam McKay would be. Not a whole lot better, but it's something at least.

Kiith

Saw it last night and absolutely loved it. Went in with pretty much no expectations bar expecting some good work from the cast, and was blown away by it.

I've never come out of a film so angry, after enjoying it so much. ****in bankers man! :pac:

darced

This post has been deleted.

e_e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X18RADltRVQ

I think this might be my favorite Ryan Gosling performance, such a hilarious Wall Street douchebag. Love how in his his scenes with Carrell you can just see Steve's character eyeing him up trying to get a read on the guy, especially in the later scene where everyone else but him is yelling at Jared and Carrell is just staring silently.

K-9

I liked the ratings agency scene because besides how shocking it was, she did call them out, which was honest. Some of the "they are just stupid" scenes grinded a bit with me,

the mortgage brokers, the alligator and the Karen Gillen scene just a bit OTT and obvious, though elements of truth in them

Acting was pretty good with a good supporting cast, the traders under Baum played it very well.

7/10 for me.

Gandalph

Don't see why people are comparing this to Inside Job? One is a doc, other is a film, regardless of subject.

I thought it was brilliant, felt Carrell's character was the best by a long shot. I think Finn Wittrock is going to make a name for himself soon too.

Gandalph

Don't see why people are comparing this to Inside Job? One is a doc, other is a film, regardless of subject.

I thought it was brilliant, felt Carrell's character was the best by a long shot. I think Finn Wittrock is going to make a name for himself soon too.

e_e

https://vimeo.com/154236446

Brilliant video here on why The Big Short deserves to win best picture and is far more audacious and refreshing than it initially appears.

take everything

e_e wrote: »

https://vimeo.com/154236446

Brilliant video here on why The Big Short deserves to win best picture and is far more audacious and refreshing than it initially appears.

That makes me want to see this film again. And reinforces Bale's great performance as Michael Burry.

LuckyLloyd

Went to see it again last night in the cinema. One small point that annoyed me which I only noticed last night - there is no attempt made to make 'January 11th 2007' seem like a January day in New York. You see people on the streets in rolled up short sleeves, etc. Given so many of the right notes, it just seemed a lazy mistake.

Yes - I'm being super picky with that criticism!!