The Big Short

The Big Short is a really inventive movie; it's like The Wolf of Wall Street mixed with Too Big To Fail. It was super funny and super dark-- often at the same time. The Big Short's most impressive accomplishment is making our mysterious stock market seem understandable to the normal movie goer. With all the talent that's packed into this movie there's no real place for weak performances, however, I was surprised how Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling were advertised as the main characters when really I thought Steve Carrell and Christian Bale were the actual main characters and Brad Pitt was just there to aid two characters played by virtually unknown actors. Ryan Gosling reminded me of a less egotistical version of Leonardo DeCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. I wouldn't have been so confused in the beginning if the previews and trailers for the movie reflected the actual cast and their roles. In the trailer I saw it showed two of the main characters played by lesser known actors once together and one alone. In both shots they just look like bank executives and neither of them speak at all so I didn't appreciate it when these two guys were all in my movie when I really just wanted to see the four big wig names.

Some people say that this movie had no right to be as funny as it was. I, however, think that a movie about the economy crashing could have been so unbelievably dull. The Big Short is fast paced but helps its audience keep up. There are a lot of really confusing terms and events that are thrown out into the plot consecutively and the movie makes sure to take a beak and catch you up on what exactly is actually going on here. So they aren't dumbing it down for you, but they recognize their target audience are not the people who already understand what happened in 2008; people who see this movie are seeing to get a greater insight to what happened in 2008, and The Big Short accommodates that lack of knowledge.

1. Editing
   The editing stood out to me solely because it was unlike anything I had seen before. The beginning of this movie began with a news reel opening like World War Z and Edge of Tomorrow and so so so many other movies, but it cut in actual footage of people when the stock market crashed which gave it a little bit of an edge up considering it's a really easy way to convey all the information you want your audience to know without putting that much thought into it.
   They did this a lot in the movie; cutting in real footage from the 2008 crash into the replication of that event made for really effective and noticeable editing. The best part about this editing technique was that clips only lasted for half a second or so. It was just a kind of flash and then it was gone--a sort of reminder that what they are showing really happened and the effects of this event need to be considered for the future. 
2. Breaking the fourth wall
   This is part of where The Wolf of Wall Street vibe came into play. In addition to the corrupt rich white guys being ridiculously outrageous, Ryan Gosling would consistently turn to the camera and explain anything new that was added to the exposition-- or he would just add some entertaining commentary. A few other characters did this, but it was mostly Ryan Gosling who reminded me a lot of Leonardo DeCaprio's character in The Wolf of Wall Street. However, I did like Ryan Gosling's skeevy character more than Leonardo DeCaprio's skeevy character mostly because Ryan Gosling pretty much knows what he is, whereas Leonardo DeCaprio's character in The Wolf of Wall Street is less aware of his greed and how terrible he really is.
   Another part of this was that when confusing terms like "CVO" were used Ryan Gosling would defer to someone to explain it, for example, at one point, I believe it was CVO's that was being explained, Ryan Gosling goes "here's Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain it" and then they cut to Margot Robbie in a bathtub drinking champagne and explaining something about housing bonds or whatever. They used Anthony Bourdain, some guy with a PhD or something like that and Selena Gomez to explain all kinds of confusing things. It was a really interesting and original way to keep the audience up to speed on what was happening and making sure they understand what they are watching.
3. Makeup/Wardrobe
   Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt and Christian Bale all had really effective appearances in this department. Brad Pitt's and Christian Bale's wardrobes especially were really essential in their character development--knowing how they dress in certain situations and how or when they touch their hair or even their little mannerisms--it was essential in finding out without being told who these people were and how they deal with what kind of situations and it was executed really well. 
4. Best acting
   Steve Carrell and Christian Bale were by far the most outstanding actors in this movie. Ryan Gosling was sort of just playing Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt wasn't even in the movie that much. But Steve Carrell Played a neurotic businessman who was constantly suspicious of Wall Street and he plays his character so well. There are elements of funny in his performance but it isn't like a punchline kind of funny it's a very dark humor if ever he is ha-ha funny. Christian Bale plays a man who is self-diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome. He is super smart and super socially unaware of how is sometimes egotistical nature comes off. He knows that he is right and he doesn't understand how saying that he is right isn't enough of an explanation for people because he is just that smart that he knows that he is right. His character is so unconventional and is slowly developed throughout the whole film we don't get that much information into his personal life but what we do get gives us an explanation for his behaviors. Bale plays Michael Burry so well and it's so convincing--I don't know how else to say just how amazing he was in this movie. 

They did that thing in the end where they tell the audience where all the characters are now and how they all came out of the 2008 stock market crash and I really enjoyed that. I think it's a good reminder that all these people were real and conversely, real people were effected by what happened. A lot of this movie works as a cautionary tale for the future. It's telling the audience, look what happened, do not forget what happened and don't let it happen again. I think the comedy elements are really tasteful in The Big Short and are used really effectively. Considering the director is Adam McKay (the same director as Anchorman) I was really satisfied with the elements of comedy because I was just afraid this terrible event that negatively effected so many people was going to have stupid jokes made at its expense, and I'm really glad that is exactly the opposite of what it was. I was pretty young when the 2008 crash happened but I remember being effected by it. I think this is a really good movie to see if you don't want to do hard research into what happened but you still want to understand the catalyst for the absolute breakdown of the economy and then some. The Big Short does a fantastic job at teaching as well as entertaining.