Review: The Big Short

"It's like 2 + 2 = fish." That effectively sums up the 2008 global financial crisis, the inner workings of which defy easy understanding. For most of the general public, the economic meltdown boiled down to banks bad, people screwed, banks bailed out because they were too big to fail, and hardworking lower and middle classes were hung out to dry. But how did it happen? How was it allowed to happen? The finer points of this calamity involve financial jargon so dense it prevents instant comprehension or the willing patience to pay attention, which is why Michael Lewis' digestible and entertaining 2010 account, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, makes for essential reading.

Is its film adaptation mandatory viewing? Not necessarily. Director Adam McKay and co-screenwriter Charles Randolph depict the shenanigans as a three-ring circus populated by weirdos and outsiders who saw the signs and were smart, or plain lucky, enough to profit from being the voices in the minority. First in the spotlight is Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a socially awkward Scion Capital executive with a glass eye and a penchant for heavy metal. He is presented as the soothsayer, the first to argue against the prevailing mindset that the housing market is stable. By actually bothering to go through the reams of individual mortgages, Burry discovers that a huge number of subprime home loans, essentially the very risky mortgages that provide few returns, are on the verge of imploding and decides to invest billions of his company's clients' money into credit default swaps. In simple terms, he's betting that the housing market will crash. His boss thinks he's insane: "We lose millions until something that's never happened before happens."

Burry's activities catch the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) who, by virtue of a wrong phone number, proposes following Burry's lead to perpetually pissed hedge funder Mark Baum (Steve Carell). Baum and his team (Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong) are rightly suspicious, but when they learn that CDOs are in the mix, Baum and his men wade into the credit default swap waters. CDOs, or collateralised debt obligations, are poor loans that have been repackaged and given AAA ratings by bumbling ratings agencies. Or, as chef Anthony Bourdain explains, if he takes leftover halibut, puts it in a stew, and serves the stew to his customers, then it's not old fish. It's a whole new thing, he makes money, and people are eating three-day old halibut.

McKay employs such techniques - using celebrities like Bourdain, Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez to spell out esoteric concepts in more relatable terms - and an array of others to ensure audience awareness. Characters often break the fourth wall and random images, animations and news footage bombard our senses when the alpha males take a break from insulting or screaming or beating their chests. Sometimes McKay's exertions are too palpable - he wants audiences to be outraged - and they often short-circuit his intentions. Still, one has to admire his irreverence even if one can't fully applaud it.

The sprawling cast are uniformly excellent, though it should be noted that none of them are given fully-rounded characters to portray. They are mere foils and archetypes, though Bale and Carell manage to offer more dimensions as the outliers who know that being proven right will be a hollow victory.

The Big Short

Directed by: Adam McKay

Written by: Adam McKay, Charles Randolph; based on the book by Michael Lewis

Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei, Karen Gillan, Tracy Letts, Max Greenfield, Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez, Margot Robbie