Directed by Adam McKay. DP was Barry Ackroyd. Based on a book by Michael Lewis who also wrote the book 'Moneyball'.
Adam McKay wrote 'Anchorman'. After watching 'The Big Short' for a second time, I'm having a hard time deciding which is funnier. When I first watched 'The Big Short' I was absorbed by the documentary aesthetic of the film. It's the gimmick Ackroyd and McKay use to get us emotionally invested. The feel is set up by the character introductions in the beginning.
Christian Bale looks like he's being interviewed for Frontline in the shot above. The camerawork has that "The Office" look to it which lends the characters some
verisimilitude. And this about what this technique does for 'The Office', making the mundane routine of life seem worthy of a T.V. show. Ackroyd is doing the same for what amounts to a 2 hour class on shorting the market.
This second time through I caught how Ackroyd's camerawork reflected the way each character saw the world. The most glaring example is how Mark Baum is shot. In his introduction scene everyone else is out of focus. He towers over them as he takes a phone call. Mark sees the people around him as stupid. Not worth his time. Not worth listening to. Again, we see it below as a whole room of people including the speaker are out of focus and all we can make out is Mark's hand.
Also the second time I laughed so hard I missed the rest of the scene. Him just yelling out 'ZERO! THERE IS ZERO CHANCE!" gets me even when I think about it.
The phone motif is repeated when he stands up to take a call in the middle of another meeting.
As I wrote, when I first saw the movie I took it seriously, it made me anxious. And Ackroyd's camera work contributed to this feeling. Below the camera pans from Mark to the therapist. In most films you would just cut between the characters. The panning feels realistic, like how we would watch this exchange if we were there in the room.
So the first time I watched 'The Big Short' I was, much like
Pai Mie, inconsolable. And so began the massacre of Bear Stearns and 60 of their financial analysts at the hands of Orso Bergman. The family living in the car at the end stuck with me like a punch in the gut. Why? When they mentioned the millions who would lose homes I groaned, but didn't have nearly the emotional reaction as seeing the father hug his crying wife. I think the reason can be summed up by this
possible quote from Russian stand up Joseph Stalin (I may be wrong on his profession, but I couldn't get on Wikipedia to check): "if you kill one it's a tragedy, if you kill a million it's a statistic."
The next night I sat down to watch 'The Big Short' and came away with completely different response. I got what McKay was pointing about these guys. Their ludicrous personalities is precisely what drives them to investigate and exploit the housing bubble. The manic way the camera follows Christian Bale around, his incessant drumming, and the use of heavy metal comically overstate Michael Burry's personality. Metal, at its heart, is this antisocial burst of naivety from people outside the mainstream. Burry and others in the film operate outside the giant banks and investment firms. They are naive enough to believe they're correct even when 99% of the world is laughing at them.
Also on the second viewing you realize none of these guys were heroes. Anything positive they did, like go to the press or investigate the ratings, was after they had made their investments and were scared they might lose. Their indignation was always self serving.
For example one of the frustratingly funny moments is when Burry tries to find out why the insurance he bought is in no way related to the default numbers on the very thing he bought the insurance against. The woman on the phone can't come up with any honest explanation. It's like watching a bad salesman get caught in a lie and just dig themselves deeper and deeper.
Highly Recommended. And watch it twice!
