A Movie Review: The Big Short

The Big Short. This movie studies a handful of individuals who went against the conventional wisdom that all was well with America's housing market between 2005 - 2008. Not only did these people think that not all was well, they felt that America was going to go through some serious troubles. And as we all know, they were right.

The movie starts with Michael Burry (Christian Bale) studying data for a Mortgage Backed Security (MBS). A mortgage backed security is a number of individual home loans that are bundled together and sold as a bond. As he goes through the list, he notices that a number of individuals are behind in their payments. He decides to bet against these loans. In order to do so, he has to set up the deal with a Wall Street firm. The firm is more than willing to take the other side of the bet.

Rumors start to fly on Wall Street that someone on the West Coast (Burry) has shorted the housing market. Soon Wall Street employee Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) joins in, but he needs help. By random luck, he runs into Mark Baum (Steve Carell) and his team. Baum, like Burry, likes to do his research. Burry loved looking through reports, Baum liked to hit the ground so he sent his team to Florida to look around at various locations. They become convinced that there is something up with the housing market.

Initially, their bets don't pay off even as evidence mounts that the housing market is collapsing. These individuals find themselves losing money. Yet, they hold firm and finally their bets pay off.

This movie looks at a terrible situation and attempts to get the audience to understand what was going on during the housing bubble. It also highlights that those who go against the grain are sometimes right even though everyone around them thinks they're a joke.

The movie lightens things up with various comedic moments and also tries hard to explain complex financial terms to the average movie viewer.

This is definitely a movie worth one's slightly over 2 hours of life.