The Big Short

Director Adam McKay makes the 2008 economic crash somewhat understandable via comedic explanations of the financial market and a strong cast to humanize the players in "The Big Short."

McKay heard Michael Lewis's book recommended by Ira Glass on "This American Life," then, when asked by his agent if he had a dream project, he chose to make this "dense, but super funny and entertaining film," the DVD extra "The Big Leap" explains, showing "his outrage without losing his sense of humor."

Although he's known for broad comedies such as "Step Brothers" and "Anchorman," McKay is an "avid, active political thinker," so he thoroughly researched this not-too-distant history, and broke through the fourth wall to have Ryan Gosling's reality-based character Jared Vennett narrate his thoughts, cop to his own greed and expose the rampant corruption on Wall Street, as well as a few other characters along with other "real people" - Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez give breakdowns of financial instruments.

Mortgage-backed securities were "discovered" in the late 1970s, and grew unchecked (letting "Ninjas" - folks with no income and no jobs - get oodles of subprime mortgages) until they collapsed the world economy in 2008.

San Jose's oddball speculator/amateur drummer Dr. Michael Burry (appropriately on the spectrum Christian Bale), "the lone oracle," first noticed these bundled mortgages were unsustainable, and shared the info via a misplaced phone call to caustic Mark Baum's (Steve Carell) New York firm Front Point (which finds that the Florida housing bubble "looks like Chernobyl," complete with gators in abandoned swimming pools). Baum is an unlikeable but "unlikely hero with a strong moral compass," and McKay cast Carell since they've worked together since The Second City in 1993 (most of the interviewees mention the welcome improvisational nature of the shoot).

Two young bucks working out of a Denver garage, Charlie Geller (John Maguro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock), under the mentorship of retired Ben Rickert (film producer Brad Pitt, looking more and more like Robert Redford), also decided to bet against the American economy against all odds.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's weren't regulating, and it was like "somebody hit a pi�ata full of white people who suck at golf," so mortgage delinquencies hit one million on January 11, 2007. The ensuing collapse saw the disappearance of $5 trillion in pensions, real estate values, 401Ks, savings and bonds. Eight million people lost their jobs, six million lost their homes, and that was just in the U.S.

In "In the Tranches" (a financial portion), Gosling said he was pleased to be "part of something that really does affect everyone" (and McKay said he wrote the part specifically for that actor).

McKay added that Bale was like Burry in that both were "all about the work," and that he shot on film, not digital (which he hates), and worked with editor Barry Ackroyd to bring intimacy, energy, chaos and speed to the project, mirroring the subject matter.

"The Characters of 'The Big Short'" talks about the real outliers who found out about the "shady shit fueled by stupidity" (which still goes on today), and that "banking is rife with entitlement and greed."

"Success, especially between 1982 and 2007, breeds complacency," concluded the "The House of Cards: The Rise of the Fall" extra, and that most bankers are "either criminals or idiots."

One of the interstitial supertitles says it best: "Truth is like poetry. And most people hate fucking poetry."

"The Big Short"
Blu-ray/DVD combo pack
$19.99
http://www.thebigshortmovie.com