The Big Short

Based on a book by Michael Lewis, The Big Short details the buildup of the infamous housing and credit bubble during the 2000s – with the movie following a selection of characters as they attempt to both prevent and profit from the impending disaster. It’s clear immediately that Adam McKay is looking to make the complex subject matter as palatable and understandable to the audience as possible, as The Big Short boasts several instances of narrative trickery designed to simplify (and, let’s face it, dumb down) the material for average viewers – including ongoing narration from a central character and sporadic concept-clarifying-cutaways to a celebrity (eg Margot Robbie explains sub-prime mortgages). There’s little doubt, however, that scripters McKay and Charles Randolph have bitten off much, much more than they can chew, with the movie, to an increasingly despairing extent, suffering from an influx of subplots that effectively drain one’s interest (and make the narrative even harder to follow). It’s apparent, too, that McKay’s ongoing efforts at bringing a human factor into the proceedings fall demonstrably flat, as such elements feel shoehorned-in and lacking in authentic attributes. (This is especially true of Steve Carell’s character’s ongoing misery over the loss of his brother years earlier.) It’s ultimately the overlong running time that confirms The Big Short‘s pronounced downfall, as the movie’s second hour boils down to a series of fairly tedious sequences in which characters either panic or attempt to fix the coming meltdown. The repetitive vibe, coupled with a relentless barrage of information, compounds the film’s exhausting and somewhat tedious sensibilities, and it’s finally impossible not to wonder just what drew McKay to such dry, unapproachable subject matter.

** out of ****

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