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Imagine the economy is like a pizza...
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Have any of you seen The Big Short?
It's a great film, and really deserves to win the Oscar this year. An entertaining and engaging look at the roots of the 2008 economic meltdown, it manages to present the whole awful morass in a way that is comprehensive and in-depth, and at the same time light on its feet and actually funny. The cast is magnificent (the film is worth watching for Steve Carell alone), and the script is charming and adroit.
One of the best things about it is the way it explains the whole confusing, insane, tangled mess. Whenever the plot starts getting into areas where an average person would get completely lost in econo-tech jargon (and who wouldn't, given that even the damn people who precipitated this horror didn't understand half of what they were doing), the film jumps through the fourth wall and brings in someone completely unrelated to the story to explain things. But it's never an economist or pundit. It's someone like Gordon Ramsay in his kitchen, who looks at you and says, "Okay, I'm going to explain derivatives now. Imagine the economy is like a pizza..." He then goes on in detail, comparing the problem to something like slicing up a pizza**, and then "Now back to the story!" There are others in the film like that, well-known people taking the problems apart and explaining them in completely non-economic terms so that you can continue the story now knowing what the fuck they're talking about in this thing.
It's a stroke of genius. Not only does it make sure your feet are squarely on the ground through the whole movie - or at least as much as possible, since economists still have a hard time explaining just what went down - but it also sustains the intended comedic tone, since the actual events are just so fucking maddening and ultimately depressing if you think about it too much. But this device, along with the magnificently off-kilter performances, keep the film dancing nimbly along, charming you while it's informing you. (Christian Bale as the definitely on-the-spectrum economic analyst who dreams up the idea that tanked our WHOLE FUCKING WORLD starts thing off beautifully, and it only gets better from there.)
Seriously, see this film. I know the 2008 meltdown is not something one would expect to be made into an entertaining romp, but you'll be glad you did. Not only will you get to see great actors in a mind-bending puzzle of a film, but you'll finally get close to understanding just
WHAT. THE FUCK. HAPPENED.
You'll be glad you did. Trust me.
** I can't remember if it was actually a pizza he talked about, as I saw the film about a month ago, but that's the general idea.
.
Have any of you seen The Big Short?
It's a great film, and really deserves to win the Oscar this year. An entertaining and engaging look at the roots of the 2008 economic meltdown, it manages to present the whole awful morass in a way that is comprehensive and in-depth, and at the same time light on its feet and actually funny. The cast is magnificent (the film is worth watching for Steve Carell alone), and the script is charming and adroit.
One of the best things about it is the way it explains the whole confusing, insane, tangled mess. Whenever the plot starts getting into areas where an average person would get completely lost in econo-tech jargon (and who wouldn't, given that even the damn people who precipitated this horror didn't understand half of what they were doing), the film jumps through the fourth wall and brings in someone completely unrelated to the story to explain things. But it's never an economist or pundit. It's someone like Gordon Ramsay in his kitchen, who looks at you and says, "Okay, I'm going to explain derivatives now. Imagine the economy is like a pizza..." He then goes on in detail, comparing the problem to something like slicing up a pizza**, and then "Now back to the story!" There are others in the film like that, well-known people taking the problems apart and explaining them in completely non-economic terms so that you can continue the story now knowing what the fuck they're talking about in this thing.
It's a stroke of genius. Not only does it make sure your feet are squarely on the ground through the whole movie - or at least as much as possible, since economists still have a hard time explaining just what went down - but it also sustains the intended comedic tone, since the actual events are just so fucking maddening and ultimately depressing if you think about it too much. But this device, along with the magnificently off-kilter performances, keep the film dancing nimbly along, charming you while it's informing you. (Christian Bale as the definitely on-the-spectrum economic analyst who dreams up the idea that tanked our WHOLE FUCKING WORLD starts thing off beautifully, and it only gets better from there.)
Seriously, see this film. I know the 2008 meltdown is not something one would expect to be made into an entertaining romp, but you'll be glad you did. Not only will you get to see great actors in a mind-bending puzzle of a film, but you'll finally get close to understanding just
WHAT. THE FUCK. HAPPENED.
You'll be glad you did. Trust me.
** I can't remember if it was actually a pizza he talked about, as I saw the film about a month ago, but that's the general idea.
.
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