https://youtu.be/5Zhy1NQf2NM

Editor’s Note: I enjoyed this film so much I’m running three different takes on it. Scroll down to find another by faithful AtHomeInHollywood critics Staci Layne Wilson and James Mandell (who not at all coincidentally shares my last name.) He had to sleep with the Editor in Chief to get his review posted, but Staci did not.

THE BIG SHORT Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell

It takes a special kind of genius to make worldwide financial devastation not only comprehensible, but consummately entertaining. And it takes another kind of genius to get talented, heavy hitting actors like Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrell to sign on for small but powerful roles. Turns out that director co-writer Adam McKay has just served notice that he is the new filmmaking genius for all seasons.

Who knew that the guy behind both Anchor Man movies, Ant-Man and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, had this kind of drama in him? The Big Short definitely has its amusing moments and you might be tempted to call it a comedy if it weren’t based on an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ seminal book of the same name, on how the housing bubble burst and brought the world economy to its knees.

Sound complicated? It’s really not, because just when you think you’re not comprehending the complicated financial procedures, products and practices, Margot Robbie in a bathtub or Selena Gomez in a bar pop round to explain it all to you in layman’s terms. Clever devices like these make the film accessible to all, and help us feel like savvy insiders, rather than clueless victims. The device of having Ryan Gosling’s character enlighten a handful of savvy investors who actually profited from the meltdown, works like a charm.

The Big Short is this year’s The Wolf of Wall Street, without Leo snorting blow off the bums of bare naked ladies. While DiCaprio is off getting mauled by a bear in another of the year’s best films, this cast manages just fine, thank you, with Paramount promoting Steve Carell as best actor to awards voters, and Christian Bale as best supporting actor. I’ll be sure to nominate both, as well as everyone else in the Best Ensemble Cast category.

Oh, and The Big Short also gets my nomination, as well as my final vote, in one more rather important category: Best Picture of the Year. I have only two more buzzy films to see before all is said and done: Star Wars: Episode VII — the Force Awakens and The Hateful Eight. But I’m pretty confident that The Big Short will stand tall on the top of the heap through the end of the year. I’ll keep you posted.

Rated R

2 Hours 10 Minutes

Get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

THE BIG SHORT Review by Staci Layne Wilson

The Big Short is a big stew of other con man movies like Boiler Room, 99 Homes, and especially The Wolf of Wall Street (Margot Robbie even has a cameo). But that’s OK, because it makes the message more palatable. It’s about four outsiders who saw what the big banks, media and government refused to acknowledge: the global collapse of the economy. So they did what any red-blooded American opportunist would do – they capitalized on it.

Directed by Adam McKay and based on Michael Lewis’s bestselling book, The Big Short carefully chronicles the outrageous yet totally true story of how four entrepreneurs prophesized and profited from the 2008 housing crisis. The film features an incredible ensemble cast including Christian Bale as a one-eyed, socially awkward savant speculator; Steve Carell as a blustery bankroller; and John Magaro and Finn Wittrock as garage-based hedge fund kids who implore a reclusive former banker (played by a bearded Brad Pitt) to get them a front row seat at the Wall Street table.

I enjoyed The Big Short, but in my opinion it was too much a The Wolf of Wall Street copycat and not enough its own thing. (Luckily I love The Wolf of Wall Street, so that’s a minor grievance.) It’s like a cinematic listicle. In other words, there’s an awful lot going on in The Big Short – from the story and original footage itself, oodles of exposition (thanks, Ryan Gosling!), to recreations, still photos, news clips, illustrations, and iterations. The edits must number in the many-thousands! A lot of thought was put into the soundtrack too – from speed metal to classical – with an especially spot-on send-up in the end credits using Led Zeppelin’s 1971 song “When the Levee Breaks” to great effect in mirroring modern problems.

The Big Short isn’t a fun ’n forget it popcorn flick. It’s a dark-comedy meets Shakespearian-tragedy that should be seen twice for full appreciation and total understanding.

THE BIG SHORT Review by James Mandell

Fall is the best time of the year for all the smart movies that had no place in a summer blockbuster lineup. It’s a virtual dumping ground for Oscar contenders, and starting with Steve Jobs, it hasn’t disappointed.

This one’s about the wholesale fraud and deception the banks pushed at home buyers and credit investors, precipitating the ’08 market crash — and before you can say oh god, not another one, let me add it’s the funniest super-brainy film in memory.

Awash with totally unexpected moments of clever explanation that instantly remove you from the action and dip you into, say, a mansion bathtub filled with a gorgeous bubble-clad model/actress, champaign flute in hand, doing a 90-second tutorial on how derivatives work (where was she in math class?) or a jump cut to superstar chef Anthony Bourdain acknowledging the camera and illustrating default swaps with fresh vegetables. Wait, that sounds weird — picture the soapy girl in the tub again. ‘Worth it just for that.

The rapid-fire dialog, the New York rich a-hole attitudes – you ain’t been put down until you’ve been dissed by a fast–talkin’ bond broker in a $5000 suit. Meanwhile, our hero, played by Christian Bale, a hapless Asperger’s-afflicted Phd market analyst sleeping in his glass-walled office in cargo shorts, t-shirt and bare feet, has to withstand a whole lotta withering huff ‘n’ puff know-it-all-ism as he nearly loses said t-shirt, insisting the meltdown is just around the corner and doing the unthinkable: betting a billion against a dizzyingly surging market.

Steve Carell plays the obsessive bond market investor who decides to vet this crackpot’s idea with a little tour around America, uncovering  a gaggle of partying lenders in an orgy of denial.  But it’s writer/director Adam McKay who deftly skips between depicting the maniacal investment house attitudes and the unintentionally wacky behavior of their blood-thirsty players.

We all know what’s coming, but it’s never been sent up like this, a screwball combination of boom-then-doom that’s full of surprises, big laughs and crackpot logic that make it terrifically entertaining and one of the best films of the year.