The Big Short (film)
The Big Short | |
---|---|
Directed by | Adam McKay |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | The Big Short by Michael Lewis |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Barry Ackroyd |
Edited by | Hank Corwin |
Music by | Nicholas Britell |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 130 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $50 million[2] |
Box office | $133.4 million[3] |
The Big Short is a 2015 American
To explain financial instruments, the film features cameo appearances by actress Margot Robbie (uncredited), chef Anthony Bourdain, singer-songwriter Selena Gomez (uncredited), economist Richard Thaler, and others who break the fourth wall to explain concepts such as subprime mortgages and synthetic collateralized debt obligations.[5] Several of the film's characters directly address the audience, most frequently Gosling's, who serves as the narrator.
The Big Short began a
Synopsis
The film consists of three separate but concurrent stories, loosely connected by their actions in the years leading up to the
Scion Capital
In 2005, eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry discovers that the United States housing market, based on high-risk subprime loans, is extremely unstable. Anticipating the market's collapse in the second quarter of 2007, as interest rates would rise from adjustable-rate mortgages, he proposes to create a credit default swap market, allowing him to bet against, or short, market-based mortgage-backed securities, for profit.
His long-term bet, exceeding $1 billion, is accepted by major investment and commercial banks but requires paying substantial monthly
FrontPoint Partners
Jared Vennett (based on
Conducting a field investigation in South Florida, the FrontPoint team discovers that mortgage brokers are profiting by selling their mortgage deals to Wall Street banks, which pay higher margins for the riskier mortgages, creating the bubble. This knowledge prompts the FrontPoint team to buy swaps from Vennett.
In early 2007, as these loans begin to default, CDO prices somehow rise and ratings agencies refuse to downgrade the bond ratings. Baum discovers
As the subprime bonds continue to fall, Baum learns that Morgan Stanley, under whose umbrella FrontPoint operates, had also taken short positions against mortgage derivatives. However, in order to offset the risk and the monthly premiums, it had sold short positions in higher-rated mortgage derivatives. Now that these are also collapsing in value, Morgan Stanley is facing severe liquidity problems. Despite pressure from his staff to sell their position before Morgan Stanley collapses, Baum refuses to sell until the economy is on the verge of collapsing, making over $1 billion in their swaps. Even so, Baum laments that the banks, as well as the government, will not admit what caused the economy to collapse, but will instead blame "immigrants and poor people."
Brownfield Fund
Young investors Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley run a small firm called Brownfield Fund (based on the firm Cornwall Capital). They accidentally discover a marketing presentation by Vennett on a coffee table in the lobby of a large investment bank (the characters address the audience stating that in reality they had heard about Vennett's plan through word of mouth from friends and publications), convincing them to invest in swaps, as it fits their strategy of buying cheap insurance with big potential payouts. Below the capital threshold for an ISDA Master Agreement required to enter into trades like Burry's and Baum's, they enlist the aid of Ben Rickert, a retired securities trader who was based in Singapore. When the bond values and CDOs rise despite defaults, Geller suspects the banks of committing fraud. The trio also visit the American Securitization Forum, where they learn that the SEC has no regulations to monitor mortgage-backed security activity. They successfully make even more profit than Burry and Baum by shorting the higher-rated AA mortgage securities, as they were considered highly stable and carried a much higher payout ratio.
Later, as home mortgage defaults increase, the price of the CDOs (the insurance against) does not rise nor does the price of the underlying mortgage bonds drop, and they realize the banks and the ratings agencies are secretly freezing the price of their CDOs in order to sell and short them before the inevitable crash. Outraged at the bank's cheating, Geller and Shipley try to tip off the press about the upcoming disaster and the rampant fraud, but a writer from The Wall Street Journal reveals his own personal conflict of interest and will not do his job so as to not endanger his relationships with the Wall Street investment banks. As the market starts collapsing, Ben, on vacation in England, sells their swaps. Ultimately, they turn their $30 million investment into $80 million, but their faith in the system is broken when Ben tells them of the severe consequences for the general public.
Epilogue
Jared Vennett receives a bonus of $47 million for profits made on his credit default swaps. Mark Baum becomes more gracious from the financial fallout, and his staff continue to operate their fund. Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley go their separate ways after unsuccessfully trying to sue the ratings agencies, with Jamie still running the fund and Charlie moving to Charlotte to start a family. Ben Rickert returns to his peaceful retirement. Michael Burry closes his fund after public backlash and multiple IRS audits, now only investing in water securities.
The personnel of the banks responsible for the crisis escape any consequences for their actions, with the single exception of one trader, Kareem Serageldin. It is noted that as of 2015, banks are selling CDOs again under a new label: "Bespoke Tranche Opportunity".
Cast
- Scion Capital, and uses his liquidity to short the housing market.
- Steve Carell as Mark Baum: the leader of FrontPoint Partners, a small independent trading firm. Baum is in a state of constant disgust with the American banks. The character is based on Steve Eisman.
- Ryan Gosling as Jared Vennett: a salesman from Deutsche Bank who decides to sell Burry's credit default swaps for his own profit. The character of Vennett is based on Greg Lippmann.
- Brad Pitt as Ben Rickert: a retired former trader who helps Jamie and Charlie with their trades. The character is based on Ben Hockett.
- John Magaro as Charlie Geller: one half of Brownfield Fund (based on Cornwall Capital), who discover Vennett's prospectus and also decide to short the housing market. The character is based on Charlie Ledley.
- Finn Wittrock as Jamie Shipley: Charlie's partner in Brownfield Fund. The character is based on James Mai.
- Hamish Linklater as Porter Collins: one of Baum's team.
- Rafe Spall as Danny Moses: one of Baum's team.
- Jeremy Strongas Vinny Daniel: one of Baum's team.
- Marisa Tomei as Cynthia Baum: Mark Baum's wife.
In minor roles,
Production
Development
In 2013, Paramount acquired the rights to the 2010 non-fiction book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, to develop it into a film, which Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment would produce.[11] On March 24, 2014, Adam McKay was hired to write and direct a film about the housing and economic bubble.[4] Screenwriter Charles Randolph, who co-wrote the film with McKay, said one of the first challenges was finding the right tone for the film. He told Creative Screenwriting, "In general it was trying to find the right tone that was slightly funnier than your average Miloš Forman comedy, which is all grounded character-based but not so satirical where you got Wag the Dog. Somewhere between there was what I was shooting for. Once I got the tone down, then I went through the plot. The market's movements provided you with an underlying plot. You make your short deal, then the bank is trying to squeeze you out, and then it all breaks loose. So that was pretty easy, and it provided character arcs against that."[12] Two years after Randolph wrote his draft, McKay, as director, rewrote Randolph's screenplay. It was McKay's idea to include the celebrity cameos in the film to explain the financial concepts.[12]
Casting
On January 13, 2015,
Filming
Release
On September 22, 2015, Paramount set the film for a
Reception
Box office
The Big Short grossed $70.3 million in the United States and Canada and $63.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $133.4 million, against a production budget of $50 million.[3]
The film was released in eight theaters in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago on December 11, 2015, and earned $705,527 (an average of $88,191 per theater). It set the record for the best ever per-screen gross for a film opening in eight locations, breaking the previous record held by Memoirs of a Geisha ($85,313 per theater),[26] and was the third biggest theater average of 2015 behind the four screen debuts of Steve Jobs ($130,000) and The Revenant ($118,640).[27]
The film had its wide release on December 23, 2015 and grossed $2.3 million on its first day. In its opening weekend it grossed $10.5 million, finishing 6th at the box office.[28]
Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 331 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Big Short approaches a serious, complicated subject with an impressive attention to detail – and manages to deliver a well-acted, scathingly funny indictment of its real-life villains in the bargain."[29] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 45 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[30] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
IGN gave the film a score of 8.6/10, praising its "energetic direction" and making "a complicated tale palpable for the layperson even as it triggers outrage at the fatcats who helped cause it".[31]
The New York Times' "UpShot" series stated The Big Short offered the "strongest film explanation of the global financial crisis". The series also stated that it "wouldn't necessarily have been able to cash in as successfully as the characters in The Big Short. The success of this film is due to the work of the actors who played the characters.”[32]
Historical accuracy
David McCandless's visual blog Information is Beautiful deduced that, while taking creative licence into account, the film was 91.4% accurate when compared to real-life events, calling it a "shockingly truthful film" with "very little dramatization or fakery."[33]
Movie critics with backgrounds in finance also commented on the film. Many agreed with the public that The Big Short was entertaining and engaging, but also terrifying. Glenn Kenny reported that the film accurately got the message across that even though the lives of the characters were not interconnected, their stories were.[34]
While the general plot of the film is the same as the book, many of the character names have been changed. For example, Steve Eisman has become "Mark Baum" and Greg Lippmann has become "Jared Vennett". Some biographical information has also been slightly modified.[35]
Eisman has said that he respects Carell's portrayal but that it was not 100 percent true to his real character. Speaking to The Globe and Mail, Eisman said, "Eliminate my sense of humor and make me angry all the time, and that's [Carell's] portrayal. It's accurate enough, but it's not really me."[36]
The film, along with The Wolf of Wall Street, had a brief resurgence in the wake of the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze as the events shown in the films provided reference points for what was happening with the GameStop and related stocks.[37]
Accolades
Adam McKay and Charles Randolph won the Academy Award,[38] BAFTA Award,[39] and Writers Guild of America Award[40] for Best Adapted Screenplay. They also won an Empire Award for the Best Screenplay.[41] Christian Bale won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor in a Comedy[42] and the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor (Motion Picture).[43] Hank Corwin won the American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)[44] and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing.[45]
The film earned the
See also
- Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
- The Last Days of Lehman Brothers
- Great Recession
- Inside Job (2010 film)
- Margin Call (2011 film)
- Too Big to Fail (film)
References
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- ^ "Paramount pushes 'The Big Short' into awards season". Chicago Tribune. Associated Press. September 25, 2015. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
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- ^ "Based on a True True Story? Scene-by-scene Breakdown of Hollywood Films". Information Is Beautiful. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
- ^ Kenny, Glenn (December 20, 2015). "The Big Short Movie Review & Film Summary (2015)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
- ^ Saporito, Jeff (February 24, 2016). "Which characters in "The Big Short" are based on real people". ScreenPrism. Archived from the original on April 12, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
- ^ "Invest like a legend: Steve Eisman". The Globe and Mail. January 29, 2016. Archived from the original on May 5, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
- ^ Watercutter, Angela (January 29, 2021). "GameStop Makes This a Good Time to Rewatch The Big Short". Wired. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
- ^ "Oscars 2016: Winners list in full". BBC News. February 28, 2016. Archived from the original on February 25, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ "BAFTA Film Awards 2016: Winners". BBC News. February 14, 2016. Archived from the original on February 14, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ "Previous Nominees & Winners: 2016 Nominees & Winners". The Writers Guild Awards. Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ Nugent, John. "Jameson Empire Awards 2016: Star Wars and Mad Max lead the nominations". Empire. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ a b Rosen, Christopher (January 17, 2016). "Critics' Choice Awards 2016 winners: Spotlight, Mad Max, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ "2015". Satellite Awards. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ Adam Chitwood (January 4, 2016). "Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars, The Big Short Land ACE Eddie Editing Nominations". Collider. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ^ "Spotlight wins top prize from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association". Entertainment Weekly. December 6, 2015. Archived from the original on December 7, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ Hammond, Pete; Andreeva, Nellie (December 16, 2015). "AFI Awards: Disney & Majors Dominate Film; Rookies Shine On TV Side". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 25, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ "Nominees Announced For Theatrical Motion Picture, Animated Motion Picture, And Long–Form TV". Producers Guild of America. Archived from the original on January 8, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ Lewis, Hilary (December 1, 2015). "'Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Film by National Board of Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on December 3, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
External links
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived March 3, 2016)
- The Big Short at IMDb
- The Big Short at Box Office Mojo
- The Big Short at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Big Short at Metacritic
- "The Big Short" at Second City Tzivi Archived September 27, 2019, at the Wayback Machine