Explaining the arcane world of the U.S. subprime mortgage-derived housing market crisis and how it led to the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 to the layperson is quite a challenge, never mind keeping them interested in the topic for all its gravity.
The Big Short takes on the task by attacking it through a variety of techniques, ranging from incongruous celebrities breaking the fourth wall to give analogies of what went on to brief on-screen glossaries of the most nebulous terms. It still takes some work to keep up at some points, but, as the characters repeatedly point out, the very nature of the banking system that created the bond instruments that resulted in the crash is deliberately obscurantist, in order to conceal its misdeeds from the public.
On an entertainment level, the film is well served by its cast, led by Steve Carell as a perpetually angry hedge fund manager crusading against the inequities of the system, Christian Bale as a semi-autistic visionary who first discovers the impending disaster and Ryan Gosling as a smooth banker who makes no bones about simply wanting to cash in on the crisis. But, despite the comedy (unsurprising, as the director was behind the
Anchorman films), what it finally imparts is a sense of indignation at how this was allowed to happen, and how no-one behind it really got their comeuppance at all. Hence, the film can be considered to have accomplished its difficult mission.
7/10
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