Final Film Analysis: The Big Short (2015)

Name Course Course Code Instructor Date The Big Short, December 2015, Adam McKay, Rated R. (Viewed on 21st May 2018). The Big Short (2015) is a biographical comedy film that explains complex financial tools, which eventually led to the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The film is divided into three stories all of which are interconnected through their actions. The film shows how investment banks deliberately invented byzantine financial instruments which helped the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. This is a story about how the 2007-2008 financial crisis came to be and how it benefited those working in the financial market. As shown in the film, few individuals foresaw the collapse of the subprime market. Even for these few persons, they did not expect that financial sector would be so much corrupt. The film explains the complex jargon and terminology used in the financial world in rapid-fire and amusing dialogue between the characters. The film employs different story telling devices to explicate the events that led to the 2007-2008 financial crisis (Schaefer). For example, director has characters onscreen fourth-wall breaking. The film also incorporates cutaways to include known celebrities who help in explaining the film to the audience in simple terms. The cast in the film instils a sense of legitimacy for example by delivering heavy, mechanical dialogue at an irritable pace, which makes the audience to feel sharper. The protagonist, Michael Burry, shows enough disposition and humanity to his role as a brilliant investor and socially inept person (Bradshaw). The director elevates the main character beyond an investor to a stereotype genius. Meanwhile, Mark Baum is presented as an emotionally impulsive and temperamental character. Visually, the directors of the film shot it in a documentary style in an effort to give accounts a sense of plausibility. The characters are also presented and dressed like ordinary people with relation to their appearances. Notably, the film resembles a real documentary save for the fourth wall breaking and comical cutaways. Its aesthetics include things such as real world news reports, montages, and pop-culture all of which helps to establish a sense of place and time (Bradshaw). However, there are various tonal problems throughout the film. A good example of these can be seen when investment brokers are seen explaining their subprime swindle and someone enquires why they are confessing so ea...