‘The Big Short’ is an inventive film with character

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of the Michael Medved Show.

The Great Recession may have officially ended in 2009, but Hollywood isn’t about to let us forget it. Filmmakers are at least reminding audiences with a very impressive and clever movie, “The Big Short.”

This is one of those films that is surprising, inventive and unusual. It certainly is going to be an Oscar contender.

“The Big Short” excels because of the cast of characters on the screen. This is a film that reminds you that you can watch anything, about anything, if you connect with the characters. It’s the essence of filmmaking, it’s why we go to movies and watch drama.

It’s the quartet of fine actors that drives this film; one of them helped produce it, Brad Pitt. Then there’s Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and Steve Carrel – and they are all legitimate Oscar contenders.

The most interesting characters here is Christian Bale, who could be our finest character actor right now. He plays a real-life man named Dr. Michael Burry, who has one glass eye, sort of out of shape, and allergic to shoes &#8212 deep eccentric and an absolute genius. This is all true &#8212 he left medicine to go into finance and start a hedge fund. He was the first person to predict the collapse of the housing market. A lot of people looked at him at the time and thought he was a weirdo.

The movie pairs him with a fictionalize version of a guy named Steve Eisman (Mark Baum in the film), played by Steve Carrel, who became almost Jeremiah-like in warning, “it’s going to collapse!”

Brad Pitt plays a man named Ben Rickert who has gone off the grid, but is brought back by what is called “the big short,” It’s different groups of people that decided &#8212 despite no one believing them &#8212 to bet against the market and they ended up making a lot of money.

Another thing this movie does is use Margot Robbie &#8212 an incredibly beautiful Australian star &#8212 to explain the nature of collateral debt obligations, just to help you understand what exactly is going on here. It’s funny. It’s wild.

“The Big Short” earns 3.5 stars. And keep in mind that it is rated R, almost entirely for language.

In the end, this movie rises well above the usual movie about finance filled with people staring at computer screens and getting angry. “The Big Short” has character &#8212 quite a few of them.

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of the Michael Medved Show.