This wonderful ensemble piece about smart people predicting and betting on the housing crisis in 2008 is funny but sorry, Golden Globes, it's not a comedy (nor is The Martian). Jack, Ann, and I liked it very much. The huge cast is headed by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Ryan Gosling (last blogged for American Hustle, Freeheld, and The Place Beyond the Pines, respectively).
Perhaps one reason the Globes deemed it a comedy is that director/co-writer Adam McKay, Will Ferrell's writing partner, who was last in these pages for co-writing Ant-Man and directing Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, has never before directed a drama (nor has he directed a movie without Ferrell before this) and they couldn't wrap their heads around it. They should. It's tight, with the help of co-writer Charles Randolph (last blogged for Love and Other Drugs), and based on the 2010 book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, who also wrote Moneyball.
A montage in this movie includes a still of a short video of Ferrell with McKay's toddler daughter Pearl called The Landlord. It's a hilarious classic. McKay is the guy with the short dark hair and glasses. Pearl retired from acting by the time she could understand the words they had her say but after she made Good Cop Baby Cop. Another of the many nice touches in The Big Short is that, instead of talking heads explaining some of the technical economic details, there are fun celebrities doing it.
The soundtrack features tons of songs, some listed here, plus original music by Nicholas Britell (not his first but he's new to me, other than a few tracks in 12 Years a Slave), which I'm streaming as I write.
This movie has already been named among the National Board of Review's Top Ten of 2015, among other awards listed in my sister blog.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 87 and audiences at 90% agree with us. Go see it. It's going to win more awards.
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