The notion of taking one of the nation’s most depressing times on Wall Street’s since (probably) the 1930s and turning it into a major motion picture can NOT be easy. For goodness sakes, people lost homes, cars, and tons of money when the housing bubble of 2008 collapsed, causing an uproar in financial stability. The Big Short attempts to explain how seemingly rock solid the US market was and how overnight it became a sleazy, dilapidated crook fest. The film is a smart, brainy, satire take on the market and does so without scrutiny. Told through the eyes of our omniscient narrator (Ryan Gosling) – who soothes us along nicely, while also breaking the fourth wall whenever he can, which becomes quite humorous. In fact most of the characters try to address the audience a few times, a tool I found to be fascinating. Even more so, to further enhance our understanding (Director Adam McKay – who at this point..most serious film was Anchorman) uses very clever celebrity cameos to help teach the audience very technical terms like CDO or ISDA ..things me or you would not interpret. So when Margot Robbie is in a bubble bath explaining this all to me over ​a glass of​ champagne, I didn’t miss a beat.

Then there is Christian Bale as a socially awkward, one eye, punk metal loving doctor turned money manager. He was the first skeptic to sniff out the the collapse before anyone else did, causing a series of financial backers to sue him. He faced the odds, and destroyed them. Equally, Steve Carell explodes as a loud hedge fund honcho who bet his life on the fallout. And finally Finn Wittrock and John Magaro as the smaller guys just trying to make a dent in their small trader business, who with the help of Brad Pitt (a character kind of just there to remind the audience of the dangers of these situations) the two guys might just find their footing in the metaphorical door.

The Big Short is a tough pill to swallow, as we meet countless of scumbags with no means to change anything. I found it counterproductive sometimes to root for the three men who sought it all. Especially Gosling’s character – who even says “I can feel you judging me” to the audience after he makes his big payday. Then I remembered it wasn’t these guys who did anything wrong, it was the banks. McKay does a transformation here, showing us the different sides of every story, so we can determine who the bad guys are. Fueled by a slew of strong memorable performance The Big Shortwas one of the most invigorating-hilarious experiences I had watching a movie this year. A-

By: Nate Adams (@TheOnlyCritic) on Twitter and Instagram