The Big Short (2015), R, ★★★★

Here's how to solve something regarding a credit default plan.

This is an incredibly complicated topic regarding the financial crisis of 2007-2010, a housing market crisis and a credit bubble. It could have been easily one of the most difficult movies to conceive and take away and could be doubtful to explain to another person who wants to watch the movie and just watch the actors recite some business dialogue and definitions that nobody in the audience would comprehend. This movie is a fast-paced biographical comedy-drama to the buildup of the financial crisis and how it would swallow traders' prides and turn them into scum by just collecting money and depriving house customers to not afford their home anymore or be in unemployment. This movie is riveting from beginning to end and I was surprise as to how much I liked this movie given the resume from a director who is a bit inconsistent in his work.

The three stories interweave with one another as all of them simultaneously figure out how the handle the situation regarding the financial crisis and whether or not there is a bubble in the market.

Around the year 2005, hedge fund manager, Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale) discovers that the U.S. housing market in unstable. He has a hunch that the U.S. housing market is extremely unstable because of high-risk subprime loans and that are providing fewer returns. Predicting that the market will collapse in 2007, he realizes he can make money from the situation by creating a credit default swap market allowing him to bet against the market, irating his clients via email. If you do not know what a subprime loan, the filmmakers allow Margot Robbie in a bathtub to explain it. Are you sold, fellas?

Meanwhile, trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) hears of Burry's actions from one of the bankers and joins in when he realizes that his predictions are true. He decides to put his own stake in the credit default swap market. A misplaced phone call alerts hedge fund manager, Mark Baum (Steve Carell), to his plans. Baum and his co-worker is being told by Vennett that the impending market collapse is being further perpetuated by the sale of CDOs (collateralized debt obligations), groups of poor loans that are packaged together and incorrectly given AAA ratings. Gosling's character uses Jenga blocks to decipher what CDOs are and you'll get it.

In the third story, eager and hungry young investors, Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Witrock) discover a flyer by Vennett and while in an office building and they want a piece of the action and want to be involved in the credit default swap situation. Because they are too inexperienced, they retrieve some help and aid from a former banker named Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt).

Work and numbers. 

This is a compelling and frustrating movie to watch in a good way to witness how brokers, traders, hedge fund managers get news as to how it will affect their future and also the population's future. I am using the word "frustrating" because most of the traders getting their hands on the deals are celebrating by grabbing people's potential earned money and how it will destroy lives and get hard-working people and their families homeless. And times, I want to just scream at their faces and say, "What are you doing to these people? They don't deserve this!"

Plus, when they are trying to define business terms and financial terms such as CDOs, credit default swaps, subprime loans and mortgages and synthetic CDOs, you get lost for a minute because you, the audience, are not familiar with their world. But, they allow celebrities such as Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez, Margot Robbie and even Ryan Gosling himself breaking the fourth wall to explain what it is using allegory with objects to make it simpler for us. Plus, the creativity is primarily good because it balances the tone quite nicely with the drama and the comedy.

The cast is superb all the way through with Steve Carell, in my opinion, giving his best performance of his career as a man who cares about the market and how it will affect other people. He is not as greedy as some of his co-workers or some of the characters involved. He's remarkable. Christian Bale has a tricky role of what he has to decide for himself and his company and his clients and the suspense in just one space with a t-shirt and shorts is nicely done. Ryan Gosling is seething and harmonious as he does not deliver another cliched role and Brad Pitt is quietly good in a small supporting role.

Adam McKay is a director whose comedies include Anchorman, The Other Guys and Stepbrothers takes us in a time where everybody is frustrated about the impending market collapse and how the housing bubble can affect everyone in America. It's no Wolf of Wall Street in which a guy is committing fraud. It is basically about people getting worried on how it will affect their jobs and how it will help or destroy clients' and citizens' lives. The movie has crackling and energetic direction with hair-raising suspense balanced with dark comedy. It is a fascinating movie to watch from beginning to end. It's a nice double feature with Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street.

****