Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Rafe Spall, Rudy Eisenzopf, Casey Groves, Maria Frangos, Hunter Burke, Bernard Hocke, Shaunna Rappold, Brandon Stacy, Aiden Flowers, Peter Epstein, Tracy Letts, David Zalkind, Adepero Oduye, Hamish Linklater, Karen Gillan.
There will always be those who prey on those in need, who find that the easiest way on life to make money, other than invent it, the other great fraudulent fiscal expression of the 21st Century, is to take it from those who can least afford it; to sell a dream in which nobody wins and which the whole rotten edifice could tumble down, they managed it in Holland with tulips, they controlled it with war after the Great Depression and as The Big Short terrifyingly and aptly showed, bankers were able to do it with the very homes that people need.
The last decade will no doubt in time go down in history, once revised and the safety of Time has been allowed to be further down the road, as the great Depression of the 21st Century, although not as devastating as the one that hit the world in the 1920s, the fiscal mismanagement and corporate greed, of the risks of gambling with people’s lives will be seen to haunt political and the everyday for decades to come. The great shame of seeing families in America, hard working, trusting families, turned out of their homes because of greed is an image that must never be repeated anywhere again.
Whilst it is always hard to enthuse about Steve Carrell in a comedic role, when film makers place him squarely into a position in which natural vented steam is evident, in which anger and forthright disgust are the moral obligation to the part, he excels beautifully and as the character Mark Baum, Steve Carrell gives the best performance of his acting career so far; unbelievably good, explosive and works like a dream, Mr. Carrell is the right person to carry off the growing anger that rises in the pit and stomach of the cinema goer.
The Big Short is a film in which must be seen but as soon as you have dared cross paths with the mighty face of corporate greed, of the insane face of Capitalism, the world will knock your view even more askew than it is arguably right now, a film of seismic repercussions which will no doubt the lessons will be forgotten in the years to come, as soon as the next get rich quick plan starts to build an ever bigger bubble.
Ian D. Hall