THE BIG SHORT : Saturday 6th February 2016

I saw 'THE BIG SHORT' over the weekend and loved this quirky fascinating insight into the financial crisis that rocked world economies back in late 2008 - the effects of which have only begun to subside in more recent years. This is a biographical tongue in cheek comedy drama written for the big screen and Directed by Adam McKay, and based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis about the build up of the housing market from 2006 to 2008 and the mortgage bubble wrapped around it. The film cost US$28M to make and so far has grossed US$105M since its release at Christmas time, and here in Australia on 14th January. 'The Big Short' is nominated for five Academy Awards and five BAFTA's in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Christian Bale, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay, with decisions pending. It was nominated for four Golden Globes but failed to win any amidst stiff competition.

To the average man in the street the financial crisis and the events leading up to it eight or so years ago now will be a fading memory and a bunch of financial gobbledegook that would be almost impossible to get your head around, or understand the banking speak that goes with the territory down on Wall Street. What Director and scribe Adam McKay has done though is bring together a strong ensemble cast, witty dialogue, and almost a beginners guide to the financial crisis delivered by an overarching narration delivered by one of the central characters, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), and several guest appearances delivered by named personalities to explain things in lay-mans terms when it all begins to get too much - Margot Robbie in a bath tub sipping Champagne, Anthony Bourdain in his kitchen cooking fish off-cuts, and Selena Gomez at a blackjack table. Cleverly done!

What we have here is Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale) playing a no-personality, anti-social, eccentric glass eyed hedge fund manager who is a whizz with numbers but little else and from behind his computer screens in 2005 determined that at some near future date the U.S. housing market propped up on sub-prime loans would collapse with catastrophic effects. Realising that he could potentially make big profits when that day inevitably comes, he persuades the big banks and financial institutions up & down Wall Street, to bet against the housing market when the bottom drops out of it as he predicts. He lobbies six financial institutions who all laugh and scoff at the absurdity of his proposals believing that the housing market is 'the bedrock upon which our great nation is built', and such an event has never occurred before in all of American history. Thinking that this is easy money the six firms all take his money amounting to a collective US$1.3B. All that Burry now has to do is sit back and wait for that day to come, all the while defending his actions to his Clients and his Board who have no faith at all in a housing market collapse and begin to withdraw their investments from his funds as he sees the value of his business steadily decline over the ensuing months.

In the meantime, Vennett is providing us with voice-over narrative to explain to us mere mortals what is going on here. Vennett however, has caught wind of Burry's actions one night in a bar from a banker celebrating a great win earlier that day from a client wanting to bet against the housing market . . . can you imagine the absurdity of that, and easy money as far as the Banker is concerned, so pass the Dom! Vennett, though can see that there is more to this than meets the eye and so digs further and realises that Burry is right. He then decides to take a piece of that pie too and invests for himself. As a result of a misplaced call to the offices of hedge fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell, putting in another great turn playing is straight and serious as in 'Foxcatcher'), Vennett pitches what he knows to Baum for a potential bonus come pay day which could be huge if Baum is prepared to invest and go large. Baum does some further digging and realises too that there is something in this and jumps in with both feet having realised that groups of low level dodgy housing loans are lumped together and awarded AAA ratings because the rating agencies are dishonest fraudsters themselves who have no integrity what so ever and are also driven by greed and profits just like the banks, investors and financiers.

Meanwhile, two novice investors Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro), who operate out of their garage office at home have successfully turned US$110K four years ago into US$30M today, pick up a paper of Vennett's by coincidence when they pitch themselves to one of the Wall Street's big six and get knocked back very unceremoniously. They study Vennett's unsuccessful pitch to the bank and realise too that there is something in it, and so enlist the support of friend and mentor Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), an eccentric banker who became disillusioned with Wall Street and turned his back on that system several years earlier. Rickert can see it too, and so agrees to help the two investor friends and opens some doors on Wall Street for them, and provide the advice & guidance needed.

As 2007 comes and goes the default on the sub-prime market begins to escalate with the writing on the wall becoming more clear for our four key protagonists, although all does not going according to plan as the power brokers on Wall Street and the Ratings Agencies seem to ignore the inevitable. They begin to feel increasingly uneasy but hold their ground as more stupidity, absurdity and denial on the part of the banks is realised too. At the same time though, they all begin to realise that when the inevitable crash does come they are set to profit immensely whilst millions of others will not. And so within a few short months the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan with the demise of several long standing Wall Street financial institutions and many of its fat cat investment bankers, mortgage brokers, and hedge fund managers now joining the unemployment queue.

In the final scenes we learn that following September 2008 when the financial crash came eight million people across the U.S.lost their homes and six million lost their jobs. Burry turned a 489% profit from his investment as the market did exactly what he had predicted three years earlier. Baum made US$1B for his company and US$200M personally, Shipley and Geller made US$80M and Vennett received his US$47M bonus cheque, thanks very much. Do we applaud their efforts and their foresight in the light of such a crisis - no, we do not; and do we feel sorry for them - no, we do not. Those few that profited do not celebrate their good fortune here having seen it coming while 99.99% of others could not, or chose not to. The weight & magnitude of the crisis had such far reaching consequences that no one could have foreshadowed what a messed up, stupid, absurd and corrupt system they work in at the expense of the millions in that mortgage sector who were for the most part largely unsuspecting and ignorant of what they were buying into.

A compelling film that grabbed my attention from the opening scenes. Bale, Carell and Gosling are standouts here with sound support from others in lesser roles including Marisa Tomei and Rafe Spall. Fascinating insights into what otherwise could have been a very dry, dull documentary style film, that McKay and his strong assembled cast deliver with relatively easy to follow narrative, relateable characters who all have their flaws, sharp and witty dialogue that helps the flow of understanding, and an engaging, entertaining engrossing take on a subject that touched us all in some way in very recent memory. I wonder what lessons were really learned from it!

   

-Steve, at Odeon Online-