The question of the day is do you want to be educated about something you probably didn’t know anything about? If that is the case and you have Netflix, then you need to check out today’s film The Big Short. The Big Short is a film that chronicles the crash of the mortgage industry on Wall Street back in 2008/2009. The film follows four different denizens in the industry Michael Burry (Christian Bale), Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), Mark Baum (Steve Carell), and the team of Charlie Geller (John Magaro), Jamey Shipley (Finn Wittrock), and Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) as they decide to bet against the housing market and it’s loans which was simply unheard of at the time. They were betting against the economy which was considered ballsy. The film also stars Tracy Letts (Killer Joe) as Lawrence Fields, Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) as Cynthia Baum, Adepero Oduye (12 Years A Slave) as Kathy Tao, Rafe Spall (Life Of Pi) as Danny Moses, Hamish Linklater (Battleship) as Porter Collins, Jeremy Strong (Zero Dark Thirty) as Vinnie Daniel, Melissa Leo (Red State) as Georgia Hale, Karen Gillan (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Evie, and the film features cameos from Anthony Bourdain, Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and the film was directed by Adam McKay (The Other Guys).
If you do not know anything about trading stocks, bonds, and the housing market then you better pay full attention to the film cause you could get absolutely lost. They have Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, and Selena Gomez appear on screen to help break down some of the terms into dummy form. Even then, I would still advise people not to leave at any point or you will be confused. If you want to see how crooked and stupid the US Government and the banks were with the average working persons money then you need to watch this movie because it’s all about how they screwed you with no lube. It’s hard to choose an MVP for this film because they all really did a terrific job in the film, but some of my favorite moments belonged to Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell especially when they were together. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Gosling is trying to explain why he is betting against the market to Steve Carell using the Jenga format to represent all the loans. The interactions between the two during this scene are just awesome and worth seeing. After you have seen the film, you are going to be astonished about how so many things just slipped through the cracks during this whole ordeal especially with the mortgage market in the early to mid-2000’s where so many people were defaulting and foreclosures were happening. This film sheds the best light on the reason for the collapse of the economy so be prepared. I am going to give the film an A for a final grade because it’s smart, thought provoking, and intuitive. Check it out on Netflix right now as we speak.
Believe it or not there are a heck of a lot of Disney and Pixar films that I have missed seeing over the years. I found out this year that Finding Dory was coming out in theaters and no that I am less than a week away from it, I think it was about time I watched Finding Nemo first. Marlin (Albert Brooks) is a clown fish who lost his wife and most of his kids except for one named Nemo (Alexander Gould) . He has made a vow that he would protect Nemo from anything harmful for fear of losing him. One day after being too clingy, Nemo becomes daring and ends up getting himself caught by a seawater diver. Now, Marlin with the help of a blue tang fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), he will go on a massive search for his son while Nemo has to try and save himself being Darla the dentists’s niece’s gift before he dies in her care. The film also stars Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Bloat, Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) as Gill, Allison Janney (Juno) as Peach, Austin Pendleton (My Cousin Vinny) as Gurgle, Stephen Root (Office Space) as Bubbles, Geoffrey Rush (Shakespeare In Love) as Nigel, Andrew Stanton (Cars) as Crush, Joe Ranft (The Lion King) as Jacques, and the film was directed by Stanton and Lee Unkrich (Monsters, Inc.).
I needed to lighten up the mood on the blog after two straight days of horror films and Finding Nemo seemed like the right kind of film. I can’t believe that this movie has been out for 13 years and I finally got around to seeing it now. This was one of the reasons I always felt that Disney with Pixar was always ahead of the game as far as animation and stories was concerned. The animation in this film is absolutely amazing and so intricate with so much detail in all the sea creatures that you see in the film. One of my favorite scenes in the film came with the Anglerfish, you know that scary looking mother with the ball of light attached to it. I don’t know what was scarier, that or the sharks? All I know is that I never want to be face to face with one ever. That is one thing I liked about this film is that it’s pretty informative and it teaches young kids about different fish and all the sea life. The film is also very entertaining while it also feels like no matter how close they get, things seem to get so far away before we are riddled with hope again. The story itself is amazing and it kind of reflects the way parents coddle their children for too long. At least that is the message I got in the film when Nemo’s dad finally learns to let go. It is definitely a film to check out and with that being said, I am going to give the film an A for a final grade. Check out my picture of the animated Anglerfish vs a real one below.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 