2015 Movie Picks: The Big Short

Time to catch up on movie reviews, and boy, do I have a whopper today. The Big Short is on at least a couple of the early lists I've seen for award nominations.

For someone who's never been a devoted student of all things financial, I loved The Big Short, even though I hate the people who inspired the story. Yes, unfortunately, it's "based on a true story" about an eccentric PhD guru and a handful of other Wall Streeters in the unfolding nightmare that brought down all those too-big-to-collapse companies, the housing market, and lifetime savings accounts for unwitting victims around the globe. The scenario that set up the house of cards started long before 2007 when banks yelled help, thanks to a series of unforgivable mortgage loan practices in place for several years. 

Check out the trailer: The Big Short

The fact that this complicated story makes for an utterly fascinating movie with car-chase pacing is largely due to the creative storytelling, which takes liberties addressing the audience, offering celebrity cameos to explain financial points, and breathing life into quirky, thoughtful, angry, baffled, and greedy characters who unravel how the impossible is about to become possible. On-the-spot performances are delivered by Christian Bale, Steve, Carrell, Ryan Gosling (look twice), and a pensive Brad Pitt as the investment whiz who left Wall Street for the Colorado mountains, and a life of composting in the slow lane, long before doomsday. 

The pending tragedy is the emotional undertow that never lets go. A series of buffoon episodes, self-serving grabs, and unexpected breadcrumbs lead to the explosive Armageddon, which Wall Street honchos dismiss at every turn. Carrell's team is onto the looming, perfect storm when one excited colleague proposes they could all make a killing by betting against the market. For one brief sidewalk pause, Carrell stops dead in his tracks as the story's moral center and point blank accuses the guy of egregious greed in the face of horrific tragedy. Well, isn't that what it was all about? 

Great flick, sad ending. Even if some financial jargon doesn't register, you still get the gist. Nominations assured. Winners possible.