Alternate Character Interpretation: The author himself notes that there's basically two ways you can view the protagonists: either they're a group of outcasts using intelligence and integrity to make money at the expense of a thoroughly corrupt system, or a bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites gambling on human misery, little better than the bankers themselves. At least some of them are quite aware that they're basically betting against the US economy, and aren't remotely thrilled about the idea.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some may not believe that chefs will take meats that don't sell and convert them into stews or pies, days later. This practice is quite common, as restaurants have razor thin margins and need to maximize the shelf life of every single ingredient in their kitchens. Of course, Anthony Bourdain is the person explaining this, and he has never been shy about making frank comments about his own industry.
Anvilicious: Unregulated capitalism is bad. The Big Short takes this stance when examining how the banks' actions led to the 2007-08 financial crisis by way of the housing bubble bursting. Nowhere is this made more obvious than in the Where Are They Now epilogue, which reveals that only one banker was given any sort of criminal penalty for his involvement in the financial crisis and that the banks are still selling CDOs, albeit under a new name.
While it won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bale lost Best Supporting Actor, McKay lost Best Director, and the movie lost Best Picture. It did have stiff competition between Fury Road, The Revenant, and the eventual winner Spotlight for Picture, so...
Carell was nominated for best comedic performance by the Golden Globes, but that didn't cross over to an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Not surprisingly, the movie has gotten a lot of division from viewers along political/ideological lines, from ardent supporters who praise it for exposing the Morally Bankrupt Bankers whose greed led to the financial collapse in 2008, and the naysayers who dismiss it as a one-sided propaganda piece pushing a nakedly anti-capitalist agenda.
Also, the Fourth Wall-breaking scenes where they use celebrities to explain some of the more complex financial terms and elements to the audience. Some people say they help to set the tone of the film and see them as an entertaining way to educate the audience, while others say they treat the audience like they were idiots who are incapable of following the story without using attention-grabbing gimmicks. And some people still have a hard time grasping the complexities even after the explanations.
The FrontPoint team visiting a recently-built urban development in Florida. It's an almost haunting scene where they see the reality of the real estate bubble firsthand as they discover the development is basically a Ghost Town. Then it crosses over to funny when Danny and Porter find an alligator living in the pool of one of the abandoned properties and have to walk away in a hurry.
Later, Baum tells Vinny over the phone to go to the meeting room and inform in very calm, very polite way the people from Morgan to fuck off. Fine, that's just Baum being Baum, rude, crude and direct. But Vinny puts down the phone, gets to the room and in a very calm and very polite manner informs them that he just had a call from Mark Baum and they are to fuck off. And they do.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Michael Burry is portrayed as quirky, isolates himself from his employees, and has very awkward social skills. He communicates to his investors in very blunt e-mails and is insolent with his co-financier in a face-to-face conversation. The epilogue mentions that after his child is diagnosed with Asperger's, he feels he might have it too.
Franchise Original Sin: Adam McKay's follow up film Vice (2018) attracted criticism for being an Anvilicious biopic that frequently partakes in Artistic License – History, two elements that were also present in this film. The difference is that while the The Big Short did take some license with the true events surrounding the 2007-08 Financial Crisis, it was mostly for the sake of tightening the film's narrative and the film acknowledged the deviations so the audience still knew the facts. The film also didn't come across as too heavy handed with its Aesop because the general public at the time was still largely unaware of the role big banks and mortgage backed securities played in causing the crisis and the film was able to explain it in an informative, easy to follow narrative.
The film has several, but Margot Robbie's explanation of sub-prime mortgages, as delivered while lying in a bubble bath sipping champagne, is a strong contender.
Margot Robbie: Basically, Lewis Ranieri's mortgage bonds were amazingly profitable for the big banks. But then they ran out of mortgages to put in them. After all, there are only so many homes and so many people with good enough jobs to buy them...right? So the banks started filling these bonds with riskier and riskier mortgages [she is handed a drink] — thank you, Benter — that way, they can keep that profit machine churning right? By the way, these risky mortgages are called: Sub-prime. So...whenever you hear sub-prime...think: Shit. Our friend Michael Burry found out, that these mortgages bonds that were supposedly 65 percent AAA, were actually just, basically full of shit. So now he's going to short the bonds, which means...bet against. Got it?...Good! [Death Glare] Now, fuck off.
The phone call between Jared and Mark near the end of the film is a good one
Jared: I'm jacked. I'm jacked! I'm jacked to the TITS! Mark:Good. Jared: You feel it? Mark: No.
The Flashback scene where a Rabbi calls for Mark Baum's mother when he figures out just why the 10-year-old does so well in his studies at the yeshiva.
Rabbi: Paul is a fine boy, and Mark is an excellent student of the Torah and the Talmud. Mrs Baum: Then what's the problem, rabbi? Rabbi: It's the reason Mark is studying so hard. [takes a breath] He's looking for inconsistencies in the word of God! [Beat] Mrs Baum:[concerned]So has he found any?
Informed Wrongness: While we're supposed to view Baum's group as just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at Black-and-Gray Morality since a) what the S&P group is doing is largely still illegal and borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up a whole country and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been lied to about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't). Fundamentally, while the protagonists are making money off the financial crash, they haven't caused it or done anything to make it worse, in fact all they've done is what they're supposed to do - look at the facts, look at the data, and invest accordingly in their clients' best interests without lying or fabricating anything. If the banks or the ratings agencies had just done that, the crisis either wouldn't have happened or been a lot milder. And the protagonists do attempt to warn people, but either no one listens, or are deliberately ignoring (or even supressing!) the information to keep making money as long as possible.
Love to Hate: Many characters, but there is one who seems to stand out: Mr. Chau, the "CDO Manager"note who even the smug and largely-amoral Jared describes as "a solid-gold asshole" played by Byron Mann, who has dinner with Baum in Las Vegas. Mann's on-point performance oozes so much arrogance and smugness, the audience wishes he would get his comeuppance so badly. But this being the type of movie it is, he obviously doesn't.
One-Scene Wonder: Robbie, Bourdain, Thaler, and Gomez would certainly qualify, as would Melissa Leo as a S&P executive, and Marisa Tomei (in a couple of scenes) as Baum's wife. Also, Karen Gillan.
Squick: For the people who are uninformed and some others who are informed, Burry putting a tissue in his eye socket in front of his newest employee is this. Sure, he is cleaning his glass eye, but the dude is still new and thus unfamiliar with him.
Unconventional Learning Experience: Due to the way the film was made, it ends up being not only a story about the titular big shorts but also a near documentary of each financial instrument that lead to the collapse of 2008, as well as the circumstances that allowed it to happen.
