Now. I have already seen Inside Job and The Queen of Versailles and several Youtube clips explaining the 2008 economic collapse, so I'm pretty clear on how it all happened.
But during the first half of the movie the dominant emotion that captured all the drama was Incredulity. Lots of dropped jaws, stunned gazes, speechless moments, and heads shaken in disbelief. The outrage of the film makers was well portrayed by the actors, and I the viewer vicariously entered their astonishment and outrage at the madness and greed of Wall Street bankers.
The second half of the movie then was a continuous sequence expressed by the phrase, "We are fucked." Really, over and over again. If you were to rename the movie, it could easily be divided in two and renamed according to the main thing being expressed by each half. The Big Short is a pretty good name too. Just saying.
Don't get me wrong. It was a very good movie, and I am as disgusted by the events of 2008 and the lack of accountability to which the big bankers were held in the subsequent years. And of course, I love all the actors in the film. It was all very well done, and perhaps deserving of all of the awards it received.
It just seemed to be very one-dimensional. Yes, there was the subplot regarding the suicide of Mark Baum's brother and Mark's psychological pain in the years that followed. But still I have to say the film was pretty straightforward.
It was almost as if to break up the linearity of an already all-star cast, the director had to employ a few clever and original tricks to keep everyone not only on track with the machinations of Wall Street and the jargon thereof, but well, entertained.
First there was Margot Robbie, arguably the most beautiful woman in Hollywood today. Then there was Anthony Bourdain talking about how CDO's are created, using the metaphor of dumping old seafood into a nice bisque instead of throwing it out. Good stuff, but somewhat obligatory.
I'm not trying to be critical. I am by nature I guess. But one should be able to say these things while also saying it was a very enjoyable movie.
And, I'm trying to keep it innocuous before I start getting really controversial on this blog.
