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The Big Short, directed by Adam McKay (R, 130 minutes) A screwball comedy about the financial meltdown of 2008 was last year’s best horror movie, guaranteed to scare you witless while keeping you entertained.
In The Big Short, Ryan Gosling plays Deutche Bank trader Jared Vennett, who guides viewers through the derivative financial market. While Vennett isn’t the hero here, he grabs empathy by introducing a ragtag group of outliers such as San Jose money manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) and hedge fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell), who were among the first to realize that a credit bubble was imminent.
The great trick of the film is it gets us to identify with these underdogs even when we realize they are betting on the collapse of the housing market and the subsequent human pain occasioned by defaults and repossessions and the effect on the economy as a whole. They saw that hard-working Americans who put their faith and savings in the hands of financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bear Stearns were essentially patsies.
Burry is the first to catch on. His Aspergian tendencies lead him to do his own research, which leads him to the conclusion that the subprime mortgage market is about to collapse. He gleefully flies to New York to convince bankers to sell him “shorts” that to them seem like ridiculously impossible bets against the system.
Carell’s Baum is deeply conflicted. He maintains a touching faith in the system that’s put to the test when he leads a team of associates
to Florida to investigate how mortgages are tendered. There they find neighborhoods of abandoned or half-completed McMansions, a stripper with five houses and a condo (all with mortgages), and a couple of braying frat boy real estate agents laughing about collecting commissions on loans they know are destined for default.
While Carell, Bale and Gosling have the largest roles, the whole cast deserves credit — including co-producer Brad Pitt in a quiet role advising upstart investors Finn Wittrock and John Magaro. Melissa Leo shows up to provide an affecting turn as a Standard & Poor’s analyst who’s fully aware of the reality of her position.
Some might complain that the movie gets preachy in the end, but it would probably be irresponsible to end it any other way. The truth is, none of the players got hurt in the machinations of the credit market — we the taxpayers bailed them out.
Blu-ray Combo Pack with Digital HD provides over an hour of bonus content including behind-the-scenes
segments with Gosling, Carell and Bale, a discussion with The Big Short author Michael Lewis and filmmakers on how the heist of the century was pulled off, plus five deleted scenes.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (PG-13, 137 minutes) Jennifer Lawrence makes her fourth and final appearance as heroic corruption-fighting Katniss Everdeen in this exciting action-packed fan-fulfilling film adaptation of the second half of Suzanne Collins’ final Hunger Games book targeted at the young adult market. Here she and her pals Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and Finnick (Sam Claflin) join to liberate the put-upon denizens of Panem and get rid of evil and powerful President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland). With Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone; directed by Francis Lawrence.
Daddy’s Home (PG-13, 96 minutes) Nothing new here in this too predictable and mediocre comedy about a mild-mannered and absolutely agreeable New Orleans radio executive (Will Ferrell)
who must compete for the affections of his stepchildren when his wife’s studly ex-husband (Mark Wahlberg) re-enters their lives. With Linda Cardellini; directed by John Morris and Sean Anders.
The Pearl Button (unrated, 82 minutes) This poetic, ethereal documentary takes a meandering route to tell the often harsh history of the southern region of western Patagonia in Chile and its relationship with the sea. Directed by Patricio Guzman.
The Letters (PG, 114 minutes) It doesn’t seem possible to make the story of Mother Teresa bland, but this dull, overly simplified drama manages to do so through uninspired
use of letters the Nobel Peace Prize winner wrote over the last 40 years of her life. With Juliet Stevenson, Rutger Hauer, Max von Sydow, Priya Darshini; directed by William Riead.