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the audience applauded

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

For those who lived through it, we all knew how this ended so the story really is the why did it hsppen? And there is plenty of explanation here. Except the government is almost totally left out of the story. I read somewhere Clinton's deregulation in the '90s led to the subprime crisis in 2007/08. Anyhow, well worth a watch especially for those who didn't live through it.

Based on the true story of how the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) came about from 2005-2008, 'The Big Short' tells the story really well by mixing humour, facts (delivered in an unconventional way by celebrities) and following four tenuously-linked groups who have skin in the game. Vennett (Gosling) introduces us at the start of 2005, via a unique fourth-wall-breaking monologue, placing the players on the field - I'm using this terminology, as most of the film (and Wall Street in general) can be likened to gambling. It may sound boring on the surface - a film about banking and finance - but it does a great job of explaining the terminology in simple terms, whilst not being condescending about it.The groups involved are Burry (Bale), a fund manager and prodigy of sorts, who first sees the housing bubble and notices that the big banks have been over-valuing mortgages (sub-prime). Baum (Carell) and his small company are offered the opportunity to "short" the banks' mortgages by Vennett. Geller (Magaro) & Shipley (Wittrock), two young entrepreneurs, who seek help from their mentor, retired Wall St mogul Rickert (Pitt) also pick up on what' happening and get in on the action. It's great to see the banks gleefully taking their money, being so cocky and greedy, only to have it all blow up in their faces two years later.I think Carell, not Bale, should have been Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor! Baum serves as the film's moral centre and calls everyone on their fraudulent behaviour. The film almost acts as a documentary when it delves down to the individual family level and makes you truly realise how little these large corporations care for other humans. The most bittersweet part is the ending - "and then the crooks went to jail, Congress brought in reform and the fraudulent system was overhauled - just joking! They didn't go to jail, Congress was lobbied so no reform was passed and the big banks were bailed out by the taxpayers" - funny, sad, and true. Really makes you think, but is also a well-made film with excellent acting.

At first, I thought this was one of those films in which the small-time heroes took the opportunity that not so many people noticed in the 2008 economic crisis and got rich. But it was not that simple, the guys who were pretty much, aholes at first, turned out to be the only ones those who cared for anything in the f**ked up Wallstreet. No one made money like they expected and simply by some turn of events, the whole corrupt and stupid system always tries to f**k up the common people and anyone who's not big enough. The cameos and the 4th wall breaking kept the narrative a fresh feeling and to a point was also educating. At the end, we see the rich get richer the poor get poorer and the guilty go free and this is a true story. Yet the blame is on immigrants and the poor. The stupidity of people is astonishing and the guy who predicted and invested in the economic crisis is investing on the water right now, that got to be taken seriously.

A complicated story navigated by some good actors, with the requisite Hollywood handwringing thrown in, at the end...This is a very contemporary topic that deserved to be explored in a cinematic sense... but I'm sorry, I just can't make myself care about the minutiae, no matter how hard I try... If you're au fait with the financial landscape, it's an impressive and engaging watch, though!