The Big Short (2015)

In 2005, a hedge fund manager (Christian Bale) begins to suspect that the nation's housing market is headed for a collapse. He decides to make a profit on the collapse by setting up a credit default swap with a bank. Sensing there is money to be made from this, a trader (Ryan Gosling) and another hedge fund manager (Steve Carell) also buy into the credit default market. Based on the non fiction book by Michael Lewis which detailed the financial crisis of beginning in 2007, director Adam McKay (ANCHORMAN) opts for a mostly comedic approach to the subject. These guys (Bale, Gosling, Carell) who are making a profit off the backs of people losing their jobs and their homes are the "heroes" of this movie! Sure, two of them feel bad about it but they're still banking the millions they make off of the horrendous disaster. McKay senses the complexities of how the collapse occurred so he rather glibly has stars like Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie (in a bubble bath) as themselves explain it to us. The film partially redeems itself during the movie's last 40 minutes which are so devastating that McKay drops the "cutesies" and begins to take things seriously. If the film's first hour and a half (it runs over the 2 hour mark) had taken this approach it would have been a far better movie. With the exception of Carell and Brad Pitt, most of the characters come off as caricatures rather than real people. A lost opportunity but not without some potent moments. With Marisa Tomei, Melissa Leo and in the film's worst performances, Finn Wittrock and John Magaro.