With the 88th Academy Awards less than a month away, "The Big Short," nominated for Best Picture, stands out as a brutal depiction of the nation's recent financial and housing crisis. The comedy-drama is a biographical adaptation of the same book, and stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
More than its all-star ensemble, the movie is a gripping account of the effects of the mid-2000 financial crisis. It narrates the story of a hedge fund manager, Michael Burry (Christian Bale), who, in 2005, discovers that the U.S. housing market is extremely unstable. He predicts that the market will collapse by 2007, and realizes that he can profit from the situation by betting against the housing market.
True enough, the economy collapses by the end of the movie. Michael wins, but millions of people lost so much. Real estate experts and columnists who saw the film were reminded of the "bad memories" of the real-estate crash that they experienced firsthand.
"That same scenario happened over and over in the Valley. It was very hard to watch it," Orr of Arizona State University told AZ Central, referring to a scene when a family was evicted from their rented house and was forced to live in their SUV.
"From 2008 to 2011, every day brought another economic or personal blow," Information Market's Tom Ruff said. "Friends lost homes. Clients went under. People didn't know what the next bad thing might be. It was bad times."
Perhaps, by reminding the public of these trying times, history can be stopped from repeating itself. Adam McKay, the movie's director, wants the film to be uplifting rather than tragic.
"I just feel like it kind of shows everything going on in America right now, and I just right away was like 'I have to make this,'" McKay told the Public Radio International. "We just didn't want that monolithic, intimidating vibe to this story. Our idea was, you know, it's exciting. It's exciting to actually know what's going on, there's an energy to it."
"The Big Short" is nominated for five Academy Awards happening on Feb. 28, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
