The Big Short - A

Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling

Rated R, 130 minutes

There were few people who were not impacted by the economic collapse of 2008 when the housing market collapsed underneath a load of sub-prime, or risky loans, but few were smart enough to see it coming and profit from it. That's the premise of the mesmerizing, powerful dramedy "The Big Short," directed and written by Adam McKay ("Anchorman," "Stepbrothers" and more), and one of the most telling, unflinching looks at what went wrong with the American housing market in the 2000's. When four outsiders (Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt) saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short. Their bold investment leads them into the dark underbelly of modern banking where they must question everyone and  everything. Based on Michael Lewis' best-selling non-fiction novel of the same name, the vastly entertaining "The Big Short" is a superbly acted, thought-provoking portrait of the flaws of capitalism; it may infuriate you but you still watch anyway. All of the principal players are real people and with the exception of Bale's Michael Burry, their names have been changed, a curiously odd decision given their well-known profiles in Lewis' book and within the industry. As outspoken hedge manager Mark Baum (based on real money manager Steve Eisman) who runs a small firm, and as the socially awkward but brilliant hedge fund manager Burry, Carrell and Bale, respectively are the most compelling standouts of the large cast. Much like the financial world, it throws a lot at you: it's a witty, colorful maze of financial terms, slick deals and fast-talking people who clearly know more than you. To help with many of the arcane financial terms that may lose a large chunk of the audience, McKay is smart enough to help you grasp it by having celebrity cameos such as Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez explain them in ways you can understand them (Bourdain's shrimp soup explanation on CDO's is especially good if you're hungry), a good move considering the movie's fast pacing and even quicker editing. What's most fascinating is that "The Big Short," both the movie and the investment concept, banks on the failure of the economy; as much as was lost during this awful time, there were still people profiting from it (though they did so legally). Don't hate them because they profited off people's misfortunes, hate them because they saw it coming before you and did something about it. "The Big Short" benefits from strong ensemble work and focused, smart direction from McKay, an unlikely choice here given all his low-brow collaborations with Will Ferrell, but the film is as relevant and more efficient than Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" (ironically, watch for that film's beauty, Margot Robbie, in one of the celebrity cameos). Place your bets on the satisfying "The Big Short," it's a winner and one of the year's best films.