The Big Short

THE BIG SHORT

Director : Adam McKay
Year : 2016
Genre : Drama
Rating : ****

At first glance, Adam McKay may not be the most obvious filmmaker to helm this cinematic adaptation of Michael Lewis' incendiary 2010 financial diatribe 'The Big Short : Inside The Doomsday Machine'. After all, he is best known as a director of zany comedy and ridiculous farce ('Anchorman : The Legend Of Ron Burgundy', 'The Other Guys') rather than intense political drama and thought-provoking satire. However, it transpires that his anarchic visual style serves as the perfect medium by which to tell this highly entertaining yet immensely infuriating blackly comic account of the catastrophic financial collapse of 2007/08 as well as the lucky few who saw it coming.

Featuring an all-star cast including Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling, 'The Big Short' sees the inevitable crisis from the points of view of several financial experts whose words of economic failure and unseen corruption ultimately fall on deaf ears. Bale has been both BAFTA and Oscar nominated for his scabrous turn as the stubborn heavy-metal enthusiast Michael Burry whose encyclopedic knowledge of the complex system enables him to short the entire US housing market. It is a very strong performance and one that sees the chameleonic actor at his most unhinged however it is Steve Carell's emotionally broken hedge fund manager Mark Baum who ultimately steals the show - his forthright defiance and undying refusal to allow avarice to take hold proving to be the films only ray of sunshine in an otherwise murky world of greed, incompetence and blind ignorance.

The engrossing screenplay of 'The Big Short' is filled to the brim with financial jargon and complex terminology and while not every sentence in the film is completely comprehensible to those not versed in the world of economics, McKay enlists in a number cameos from the likes of Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez to help decipher the complicated situations and bring them down to a level which doesn't patronise but instead helps those who have little grasp of the banking sector understand a little better the plot and the various scenarios which are taking place on screen. There are also some nicely staged fourth-wall breaks scattered throughout the film which enable the audience to distinguish between various characters motives and their various trains of thought.

However, despite these welcome pauses between the multiple plot threads,  there are points throughout the running time of 'The Big Short' where the ever-growing spider web of betrayal and corruption begins to break at the seams. While credit must be given to Adam McKay for trying to cover as much ground as is possible in two or so hours, the combination of indecipherable dialogue and too many characters with too many motives threatens to overwhelm the narrative and dilute the seriousness of the story. Nevertheless, thanks to his vigorous direction and a universally brilliant cast, 'The Big Short' still ends being a very watchable yet horrifying retelling of one of the worst crashes in global economic history - a crash that could have been so easily prevented if it wasn't for short-sighted greed and unquenchable voracity.