“The Big Short” tells the story of how the 2008 Great Recession began with the crumbling of the housing market, ultimately leading to a worldwide financial crisis. Wall Street sold financial instruments guaranteed by subprime mortgages (or variable rate mortgages, which included terms allowing for initially low monthly payments but with terms permitting increases by as much as 200 percent to 300 percent). When homeowners were no longer able to make make these rising payments, they abandoned their homes. Because the real estate market is the foundation of our monetary system, once it failed, the world’s financial structure came tumbling down.
To complicate matters, some investors saw this debacle coming and choose to benefit from it. A money manager, Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale), bought credit default swaps, which basically meant he got paid once the homeowners began to default on their loans.
“The Big Short” is an intriguing, troubling and even painful film on how the perfect storm of greed, incompetence and a shocking lack of regulatory oversight led to a crisis in which 6 million people lost their homes and 8 million people lost their jobs. “The Big Short” gets a “See It” rating. It’s not a fun movie, but you will be educated while you are entertained.
The lead performers, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt individually and collectively shine as the quirky and very driven characters who were either outraged by the events or simply decided to profit from them.
And the writers make the point that Wall Street is really not as complicated and mystical a place as many people believe it is.
It get a C+ for cast diversity. It’s based upon a true story and the casting should stay true to the real events. Adepero Oduye plays a money manager supervisor and has a pivotal role in the story. Bryan Mann and Marcus Lyle are also featured.
“The Big Short,” 130 minutes long and rated R for language, sexuality and some nudity, gives you a big opportunity to see what really happened in the Great Recession.