This sharp, witty but harrowing re-telling of the 2007-8 US
housing market crash is not only informative but includes some incredible performances
by Christian Bale and Steve Carell. Michael Burry, played exquisitely by
Christian Bale, is a socially-challenged hedge fund manager who was responsible
for the credit default swaps that aided him (and others) in “shorting” the
housing market. Christian Bale’s astonishing performance as this awkward personality
has earned him both a Golden Globe nomination and an Oscar nomination for Best
Supporting Actor.
Due to the nature of the narrative, the film includes some
extremely technical and confusing language relating to Wall Street and the
housing market, so I can guarantee that everyone who watched this film,
including myself, had no idea what a CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) or a
Triple A rated bond was. The film played on the audience’s lack of financial
knowledge and addressed this in a comical and unique way. Using famous
celebrity cameos such as Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie, Adam Mckay, who has directed films like Step Brothers and Anchorman, was able to avoid excluding a large majority of the film’s audience
by breaking down these tricky terms into concepts which the everyday viewer
could grasp.
This film was comical, interesting and is overall an
Oscar-worthy film. Adam Mckay’s vision resulted in this film being one of the
stand out motion pictures of 2016 so far and so I have high hopes for upcoming Academy success.