Review: ‘The Big Short’ turns the housing market collapse into a fun movie

Posted on January 8, 2016

By MARK VIOLA

In 2011, I saw “Moneyball,” a film written by Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network”) and starring Brad Pitt, which managed to take a seemingly boring subject–baseball analytics–and turned it into a highly entertaining movie.

Now we have “The Big Short,” a film directed and co-written by Adam McKay (“Step Brothers,” “The Other Guys”), which does the same thing for the 2008 housing market collapse. And let’s face it: the collapse and resulting worldwide recession was one of the most pivotal events of the last decade, but few of us really give much thought about it–outside cursory attempts at leveling blame–and even fewer truly understand what exactly happened, let alone why.

And that’s one of the reasons why this film works so well. As much as it is interested in telling its story–and it does so very well–it also wants to be sure its audience understands what is actually going on.

I found “The Big Short” to be extremely entertaining thanks both to its great ensemble cast as well as a bevy of tricks used by McKay to keep us engaged from start to finish. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to watch this, but I do know I wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as fun, compelling and informative as it turned out to be.

“The Big Short” is an excellent film which takes a seemingly boring and unreachable concept and turns it into not only an informative and understandable story, but also a highly entertaining experience.

The film is rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality/nudity.

(This is a abbreviated version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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