The protagonists of the film are a group of speculators, and they benefit from the collapse of the country's economy, that is to say, what they make is a national disaster. But you don’t hate them at all when you watch the film, because their insights and research have exposed the greed of Wall Street, the inaction of the government, and the fraud of the entire financial system, all of which were the initiators of the financial crisis.
The audiovisual language of the film is very stylized and complements its narrative content. The film takes the form of a pseudo-documentary: often moving, zooming, freeze-frame photography, celebrity quotes inserting, and fancy collage editing. The story is told by one of the protagonists, Jared Venet (Ryan Gosling), who serves as the film's narrator. With this pseudo-documentary form, the film breaks the fourth wall, and the characters in the film can speak to the audience to the camera. This not only creates a great sense of joy, but also makes it convenient for the film to explain abstract and difficult financial terms to the audience when necessary.
In order to make the audience understand, the film uses a lot of vivid metaphors to explain professional knowledge. Similar to interviews, the film unreasonably involved actors, celebrity chefs, scholars, singers, etc. to explain the situation to the audience.
The most conspicuous thing about the film is its dazzling editing. The editing rhythm is very fast. In addition to the plot, some pictures that have nothing to do with the story will be quickly cut. These pictures are concise and clear to show the background of the times. In the episode of Michael Barry (Christian Bell) sweeping half of Wall Street to short real estate securities, the film also cross-edited a MV. The MV is full of money and restlessness, which is not only a metaphor that Michael and the bank are in full swing of money transactions, but also a pungent mockery of the bank that thinks it has a big advantage.
The film likes to use cross-editing very much. For example, when Michael appeared on the stage, in order to show that he was not good at social, withdrawn and weird character and the reasons, the film intersects Michael in three periods: the rugby game when he was a child, and the swimming alone when he grew up. , And the ongoing interview. In this way, the amount of information in a short period of time is huge, which is still a test of the audience's reaction.
The keynote of the film is humorous. From editing, music, to lines, performances, to characters and plots, it is extremely funny. It mocks the stupidity and greed of the entire financial system with a playful attitude. The contrast of comedy style is that it actually tells a sad, serious and cruel story. As a result of this economic crisis, millions of Americans are unemployed, homeless, and $5 trillion disappeared. This includes pensions, retirement benefits, and so on. And this is only the case in the United States.
Lessons learned, the film's reflection on the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis is intended to warn people that although the economic crisis has passed, it has never gone away.
View more about The Big Short reviews
