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PEOPLE & ARTSWednesday 9 December

Review: In ‘The Big Short,’ a bet against America pays off

JAKE COYLE of Michael Lewis’ “The Big downturn in the housing antic style, leaving his star- Rickert (Pitt), a retired vet-
AP Film Writer Short,” a handful of finance market only to realize, to ry cast __ including Steve eran who now disdains
In Adam McKay’s comic speculators __ outsiders their horror and immense Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Wall Street. Sifting through
and clear-eyed adaption and oddballs __ predict a profit, that they’ve effec- Gosling and Brad Pitt __ the data, they each come

This photo shows, Rafe Spall, from left, as Danny Moses, Jeremy Strong as Vinnie Daniel, Steve
Carell as Mark Baum, Ryan Gosling as Jared Vennett and Jeffry Griffin as Chris, in the film, “The
Big Short,” from Paramount Pictures and Regency Enterprises.

(Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures via AP)

tively bet against America, ample room for improvis- to the conclusion that the
and won. ing. They are part of the bedrock of the U.S. econ-
It’s a rollicking, outrage-fu- enticements of “The Big omy __ the housing market
eled odyssey through the Short,” which strains hard __ has quietly been weak-
financial collapse of 2008, to make the complex fi- ening. When everyone is
from the carefree offices nance of its subject di- riding the market to record
on Wall Street to the va- gestible and entertaining, highs, they swim against
cant subdivisions in Florida, including occasional in- the tide. The story of the
that gradually reveals not structional interludes from 2008 crisis has, of course,
just a market bubble but a the likes of Margot Robbie been told many times be-
colossally bankrupt system (in a bubble bath), Antho- fore. The best portrait of
and a nation that blissfully ny Bourdain and Selena the era’s out-of-control
teetered into absurdity. Gomez — eye candies for excesses was Martin Scors-
As one of the pre-eminent brief explanations of collat- ese’s “The Wolf of Wall
comedy directors, McKay eralized-debt obligations Street” (set in the ‘80s and
has shifted into a more re- and other instruments of ‘90s but made in the wake
alistic, dramatic world only financial minutia. of the 2008 collapse). None
to find a farce too ridicu- Our central characters are captured the personal
lous for satire. And as any- a foursome of (mostly) un- pain more than Ramin
one who has been paying related investors. There’s Bahrani’s eviction drama
attention to McKay’s com- the glass-eyed, heavy “99 Homes,” released ear-
edies can attest, his humor metal-listening trader Mi- lier this year. What sets “The
has always come laced chael Burry (Bale), a the Big Short” apart is its steadi-
with biting political subtext: brash-talking banker Jared ly accumulating rage. It’s
the TV news of “Anchor- Vennett (Gosling); a cyni- a movie for that modern
man,” George W. Bush- cal hedge fund manager American experience of
era America in “Talladega Mark Baum (Carell); and looking around and seeing
Nights,” white collar crime two young investors (John so much corporate corrup-
in “The Other Guys.” Magaro and Finn Wittrock) tion that one’s head might
He has kept his loose and who are mentored by Ben explode.q