This December, like so many Decembers before it, will set moviegoers on high alert with a slew of awards contenders releasing thick and fast – not to mention Disney’s elephant in the room, The Force Awakens. It’s little wonder why this pre-Oscar window is referred to as the industry’s purple patch, and one of those new releases eager to place its stamp on 2015’s circuit is Adam McKay’s financial drama, The Big Short.
Marking a significant creative departure for the director, who is best known for helming a string of Will Ferrell comedies including Anchorman, McKay’s latest features a star-studded ensemble: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and Brad Pitt. Each sporting slightly distracting hair pieces, it is this core quartet that will headline the feature as four outsiders monitoring the credit bubble during the early 2000s.
In anticipation of the inevitable burst, Carell and Co. set about hatching their own atypical investment in The Big Short. Lifted from Michael Lewis’ acclaimed non-fiction novel The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, what follows is a series of moral conundrums as the leading players find themselves tumbling further and further into the economic crisis. Jeremy Strong, Rafe Spall, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Hamish Linklater round out the ensemble.
With a cast that includes Carell, Gosling, Bale, and Pitt not to mention Adam McKay venturing out of his comfort zone, The Big Short ought to have our undivided attention when it opens on December 23.
When four outsiders saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short. Their bold investment leads them into the dark underbelly of modern banking where they must question everyone and everything. Based on the true story and best-selling book by Michael Lewis (The Blind Side, Moneyball), and directed by Adam Mckay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) The Big Short stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.