From director Adam Mckay (Anchorman) and based on the book from Moneyball/The Blind Side Author Michael Lewis, The Big Short stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Karen Gillan, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei and Brad Pitt. It hits Blu-ray March 15th.
When four outsiders saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short. Their bold investment leads them into the dark underbelly of modern banking where they must question everyone and everything. Based on a true story.
Review
Adam McKay’s leap from comedy to drama is a big deal to be sure, and this Blu-ray package definitely explores that to great length in the special features (see “The Big Leap” segment) but The Big Short for what it’s worth as a drama, is equal part in measure damn funny as well. I loved this film and I’m sad I missed it during Oscar season when it was first making the rounds. The writing, direction and narrative are all flawless. When Ryan Gosling’s character cuts to a random famous person so they can explain something confusing to the audience in their own simplistic terms – it’s fantastic. “Here’s Margot Robbie in a bubble bath”.
I was a little surprised to see that each set of main characters never really crossed paths during the movie – not once. The Big Short is a film that follows various sets of Wall Street investors who get a tip that the housing market is about to crash, badly (and my did it ever) so they wind up betting against the system in order to make a shitload of money. The problem with that – is that nobody bet against mortgages in the late 2000’s and when they eventually did crash, it was pretty damn sad. We spend the entire film routing for these guys to be right, according to history since this is a true story WE KNOW THEY WILL BE RIGHT, but we cheer for them anyway and in the end when they are right – it’s not all that happy of an outcome considering how devastating the result is for the people who wind up losing their homes and all the dudes getting fired from their office jobs.
Christian Bale’s performance as the eccentric investor who discovers the inevitable housing market crash on the horizon and decides to bet it all on that outcome, may have received all the attention but I personally love Steve Carell here. I think his performance rivals his Oscar nominated part in Foxcatcher. His outbursts, his willingness to answer his damn cellphone right in the middle of a meeting like an asshole, everything about him is just blunt and perfect. You hate him, then you love how honest he is right to the bitter end.
For a film that is driven entirely by dialog and because of it’s setting that deals with financial investing strategies, The Big Short could have wound up a confusing mess but McKay did a damn fine job making such a scatterbrain and complex storyline into a streamlined film for the masses. While the Wolf of Wall Street focused on the extremes and insanity of Wall Street in the 80’s and early 90’s, The Big Short deals with corruption in an entirely different way by not glorifying it and opting to go a different direction. One of 2015’s most clever films, The Big Short is absolutely worth your time on Blu-ray and the wealth of special features surprised me, considering most Oscar winning drama’s don’t typically need to beef up their home releases, but thankfully this one came stacked.
Special Features
- Feature film in high definition
- In the Tranches: Casting
- The Big Leap: Adam McKay
- Unlikely Heroes: The Characters of The Big Short
- The House of Cards: The Rise of the Fall
- Getting Real: Recreating an Era
- Deleted Scenes
Rating: [star rating=”4.5″]