The Big Short

Swinging masterfully between irreverence and incredulity, The Big Short courageously tells the story of the men who saw the 2008 financial crash coming and decided to bet it all on global economic catastrophe. Based on Michael Lewis's non-fiction bestseller, it sees co-writer/director Adam McKay (Anchorman) make the successful jump from broad comedy to incisive satire. With its energetic editing, fidgety camerawork and cocksure humour, it apes the restless swagger of the world of high finance. McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph find fun ways to explain challenging concepts (The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie talks us through mortgage bonds) and the charismatic cast are uniformly superb; Christian Bale and Steve Carell's hedge fund managers are a bundle of neuroses while Ryan Gosling steals the show as a ruthless trader. Meanwhile producer Brad Pitt is quietly impressive as an ex-banker pulled back into the game. Deftly drawing out the moral compromises, obstructive complexities and unbelievable injustices of this risky business, the film manages to be entertaining and accessible as well as frighteningly credible.