Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.
So, here is what I watched this past week:
The Big Short
How do you make a comedy about the subprime mortgage crisis that nearly destroyed the world’s economy? Not very easily as Anchorman director Adam McKay can attest. The Big Short is funny in places, but the absurdity of the situation is far more dire than one might think.
Explaining the complexities of the narrative falls to the likes of Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez, three of a long series of fourth-wall breaking events that provide the major framing device for the film. McKay’s screenplay is impeccably researched and while it reduces the concepts sufficiently, they are still difficult to explain, which is why such a tragedy could have occurred in the first place.
Filled with a raft of ace performances, The Big Short is engaging and thought-provoking film that doesn’t quite find a suitable rhythm to keep the audience engaged and concerned about the situation. These are men who made a great deal of profit while betting on the market to fail. Steve Carell’s conscientious Mark Baum acts as the audience’s surrogate soul, a figure repulsed by what’s happening, but unable to stop it.
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