The big short (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Adam McKay
	Actors: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 18.04.2016, in-flight entertainment 10" screen
Synopsis: Three separate but parallel stories of the U.S mortgage housing crisis of 2005 are told. Michael Burry (Bale), an eccentric ex-physician turned one-eyed Scion Capital hedge fund manager, has traded traditional office attire for shorts, bare feet and a Supercuts haircut. He believes that the US housing market is built on a bubble that will burst within the next few years. Autonomy within the company allows Burry to do largely as he pleases, so Burry proceeds to bet against the housing market with the banks, who are more than happy to accept his proposal for something that has never happened in American history. The banks believe that Burry is a crackpot and therefore are confident in that they will win the deal. Jared Vennett (Gosling) with Deutsche Bank gets wind of what Burry is doing and, as an investor believes he too can cash in on Burry's beliefs. An errant telephone call to FrontPoint Partners gets this information into the hands of Mark Baum (Carell), an idealist who is fed up with the corruption in the real estate and banking world.
Review: The story is told on a relatively plain manner for this controversial and hot topic. There is no scene with extra explicit drama. But the drama is there in the daily life, in the common discussion of these economists. This gives the impression that no economist cares about the consequent drama generated by the bets on North American real estate market and economy. This gives also the impression that even knowning the lie of this bet, the economists believed they would never loose, but that the state would possibly loose. The cold blood, the carelessness of the decisions taken by North American and European economists in the 2000's and presented in the movie are impressive and confirms the since then ever-decreasing lack of confidence of the people to the banks. Strangely enough the bank-led economy is almost not discussed by the campaign for president. The acting of all parties, is very convincing, because Bale manages to transmit this carelessness, because Carell manages to transmist this reluctance to what he is doing, because Gosling manages to transmit this egocentered thinking, because the two side characters who want to bring this scandal to the press manage to transmit the ambivalent will between egoism and altruism. They all manage to show how they trick their counterpart and also that finally they are not even happy with it.  The technical part, camera, sound, is also quite plain and fits to this goal of showing this brutality as daily life.  To me, an excellent movie for its story, its message and its acting.
Rating: 8 /10