The Big Short

It seems like a low-blow to make a devastatingly satirical look at events so closely linked to the Global Financial Crisis when it’s effects are still being felt around the world, but Adam McKay (creator of Anchorman, Step Brothers and The Other Guys) strikes an empathetic balance with The Big Short. 

The year is 2005 and Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a mathematical genius and hedge-fund manager realises that the stability of the U.S housing market is being undermined by high-risk subprime loans. Burry predicts the market has approximately two years before a crash and decides to bet against the housing market with credit default swaps. Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) hears of this and decides to get in on the game and, thanks to a misdialed phone call, alerts another hedge-fund manager, Mark Baum (Steve Carell) to the scheme. A pair of young investors find a booklet of Vennetts and also hope to make some money out of default swaps, enlisting their friend and retired banker Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to help complete the transaction. 

The most crucial part of The Big Short is its focus on two shades of immorality. It pits those that recognise and take advantage of the housing market’s impending doom against the bankers that arrogantly continue to saturate the housing bubble. It doesn’t make it difficult to take sides - the four leads do at least have some empathy for those that will be hit worst by it - but that’s not really the point. It serves as a darkly enjoyable indictment of the financial industry’s greedy tunnel-vision. McKay creates an interesting focus on detail where he breaks the fourth wall with celebrities such as Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie explaining - or more precisely, dumbing-down - the financial terms operating within the scenes. Personally, these snippets didn’t particularly help me understand everything at play, but rather served to relax me enough into the story that I was happy to let the jargon go over my head. Of course the experience will be different for different viewers but I feel this was at least partly McKay’s intention. Otherwise he would have used Margot Robbie with a play-school diorama, not Margot Robbie in a bathtub. 

The four leads divide the film into different stories that really only slightly interweave as news of the scheme spreads, and most of the performances are great. The only issue with the way they emerge are the short backstories. They feel tacked-on, at times unnecessary and more crucially, jarringly break the satirical tone. Steve Carell is more-believable in this role than he was in Foxcatcher, and that’s not just because he’s constantly angry or that the comedic material is more to his style but because in that film he was so out of his own skin that I found it impossible not to just see a heavily disguised Steve Carell, whereas here he really makes Mark Baum his own. The same can’t be said about Gosling’s Jared Vennett, whose charismatic veneer can’t outweigh his belligerent lack of empathy. 

Christian Bale’s mildly-autistic performance is book-ended by a drumming heavy-metal admiration and a mathematical temperament. Like most of the leads, he has a refreshing honesty about him - particularly when he discusses with his investors via emails - and thankfully Bale doesn’t lean as heavily on the ‘rain man’ act as I had expected. Brad Pitt’s character is probably the most interesting in the movie, with his unusually subdued performance he portrays a man that has conflicting moral predicaments which become much more evident when the crash occurs. The Big Short undoubtedly takes influence from The Wolf of Wall Street, particularly in its willingness to break the fourth wall, but also in its editing style. McKay is not as heavy on the montages as Scorsese but its sense of hyperactivity is the same. Which is not to say that this is on par with Wolf but it is able to keep an audience’s attention through similar techniques. 

The Big Short proves that McKay can commit to satire with a strong sense of purpose. It catches the apathy of high-finance whilst still hinting at the human-suffering the crash causes, bolstered by some great performances from the leads.You’ll be laughing all the way through and feeling guilty about doing it.   

War Movie Month: Empire of the Sun (1987)

The Japanese invasion of China is an oft-forgotten aspect of WWII, but when you think about the idea of the small island empire invading its larger neighbour, you can definitely see how big the undertaking was. Combine this with Steven Spielberg's epic style of film-making and you get a pretty big and exciting film.

Jamie Graham (Christian Bale) is a privileged English boy living a life of luxury with his family in Shanghai, where his father owns a corporation. Soon after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour, they invade Shanghai, leading to the separation from his parents. Left wandering around the city after leaving his home due to starvation, he is saved by Basie (John Malkovich), an American sailor. They are both eventually captured by the Japanese and sent to Soochow Creek Internment Camp. Jamie, now named Jim by Basie, finds a father figure in Dr. Rawlins (Nigel Havers) and runs a successful trade network that even includes some of the Japanese officers.

Spielberg's bigger picture really does come into play here. There are many scenes with hundreds of extras that blow my mind away. They're definitely something that doesn't get done today, massive groups of extras would just be added in digitally in contemporary films. There are also some great aerial battles, albeit watched from the ground through Jim's youthful eyes, and these are a wonder to watch.

I'm a little disappointed that treatment of the people living in the internment camp isn't something that is covered too much in this movie. Japanese camps were well known for not having the best living conditions, but again we watch this movie through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. Anyway, this is something that Spielberg portrayed much better in Schindler's List. Spielberg does also throw in a small group of scenes with young Japanese pilots training for kamikaze missions. These culminate with a scene of Jim singing the Welsh lullaby Suo-Gân as they fly off on their mission.

Christian Bale is more known for his roles as Batman and Bateman, but his skill as an actor started at an early age. He was 12 when he got this part, he came recommended by Spielberg's then-wife Amy Irving. Young Bale had a certain innocence that was perfect for role and was capable of showing terror when it was needed. John Malkovich isn't as scary as he would become later on, such as his role in Being John Malkovich, and I find it weird that his character is revealed in a way as though we'd be surprised that it's him. He has a pretty distinctive voice and we hear him talk a fair bit before we see his face.

Supporting roles from Nigel Havers and Miranda Richardson help aid the main stars, but they're not entirely memorable. One of the better smaller roles is Dainty, a gang member of Basie's and played by a young Ben Stiller. In fact it was on this movie that he got the idea that would eventually become Tropic Thunder.

Verdict: A fantastic war film and a great introduction to Christian Bale.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Ridley Scott's take on the story of Moses is suitably epic and it would be hard to compare it to his last two movies. But if we go back and look at other historical epics he's done, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven, we know there's precedent for him to be better.

Exodus tells the story of Moses (Christian Bale) and how he gathered the Hebrews to escape the Egyptians. We see his exile from Egypt by the Pharaoh Ramesses II (Joel Edgerton), the plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. Depending on your background, this is probably a familiar tale and will be easy to follow, even guess what is going to happen next.

As stated above, Scott is fairly adept at making an epic film and this movie certainly does tick all the boxes. While it doesn't necessarily push the envelope in the storytelling department, it makes up for it with some amazing visuals and action set pieces. The sets of Memphis, the capital of Ancient Egypt are amazing and are backed up with some wonderful CGI images of the pyramids under construction. The deserts of Spain make a fantastic substitute for Egypt and match all the rocky crags that one might imagine from biblical myths. There are some amazing battles scattered throughout that display the amazing numbers that the armies of the time would have had.

In terms of acting, this really is a two-horse show for both Bale and Edgerton. Their performances aren't great, but that has to do with limited character development and that's alarming given the amount of supporting characters in the film. The stars playing the minor characters (Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro and Sir Ben Kingsley) are all given remarkably little to do but display a seemingly talented backdrop. The only person who I thought tried with his character a little was Ben Mendelsohn, who plays a slightly effete Egyptian viceroy.

Verdict: An overall good and suitably epic tale, but doesn't push the boundaries or throw you anything that you wouldn't have expected.

Christian Bale out, Michael Fassbender in. Who is going to play Steve Jobs?

Fassbender after reading about
his involvement in the film

A couple of weeks ago, we had reported that Christian Bale was up for the role of Steve Jobs. Well, it seems that he has taken himself off the project, leading sources to say that Michael Fassbender is "in talks". But we all know how much we can trust "sources".

The good people over at Vulture have made a list of Oscar-worthy leading white men, one of which will surely say yes to the role. These include Javier Bardem, Edward Norton, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Renner, Mark Wahlberg, Jared Leto, Jean Dujardin, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Michael Shannon, Joaquin Phoenix, Bradley Cooper, Casey Affleck, James Franco, Ryan Gosling, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonah Hill, and Haley Joel Osment. 

Definitely one of them.

Christian Bale as Steve Jobs

So fresh on the heels of the previous Steve Jobs biopic that nobody saw (although I hear Ashton Kutcher did a passable job) comes news of another biopic of the Apple founder. It will be written by the prominent Aaron Sorkin, who is famous for his work on the TV shows The West Wing and The Newsroom, as well as winning Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network. He will this time be adapting Walter Isaacson's biography and if The Social Network is anything to go on, this film should be sharp.

Sorkin has recently stated in an interview that Christian Bale has been cast in the role. He praised him for his work and said that "we needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that was Chris Bale". Sorkin also said of the film that role will be extremely difficult and that "he says more words than most people in three movies combined". Other actors rumoured for the role were Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Leo DiCaprio was attached at one stage too. Danny Boyle will direct.

Where this will fit in terms of previous films about Jobs is anyone's guess. Whether it will focus on his early career like jOBS (2013) or his rivalry with Bill Gates a la Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a mystery. Certainly due to the scope of both the biography and Sorkin's method of writing, I'm sure that it will be dialogue heavy and epic in scope.

Classic Movie Review: American Psycho (2000)

American Psycho is the kind of movie you have to watch at least twice. Preferably more. The first time you'll watch it and see a movie about a guy who just likes to murder people and is just what the title says. But after a few viewings you start to notice things that you missed out on before. So after probably my fifteenth viewing, I think (rather hopefully) I finally understand the film.

It follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a young attractive finance executive in New York, who tells us that he is an insane psychopath who loves to murder people. And that's anyone and everyone. Through the course of the film he kills homeless people, dogs, models, colleagues, prostitutes, police officers and friends.

From the first viewing I always knew that this film was an obvious satire of late 80's yuppie culture. It's pretty hard to miss it. Bateman and his friends are obsessed with the best clothes, girls and food. Through Bateman's narration we are told of his morning routine with precise detail, including the specific types of lotions he uses and the properties that they have. There is a great scene where the guys compare each others business cards, with Bateman's tense narration playing over the top. This particular scene highlights the need Bateman has to one-up everyone, even in the most minute details.

But at it's core the film is also about conformity and Bateman's extreme need and desire to fit into the popular culture. He loves listening to Huey Lewis & The News and at many times gives lengthy speeches about particular singers before offing his victims, you can watch the most famous of them here. One facet of conformity that he cannot attain however, is a table at the elusive restaurant Dorsia, much to the dismay of the people around him.

Now, despite being best known for playing Batman, Bale's best work ever is as the two-faced Bateman (only one letter really divides the two roles). In the above scene, the blood splatter on his face only accentuates the two-facedness of his character.

There are also great supporting roles from Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon and Willem Defoe. But due to Bateman's role as an unreliable narrator, all these characters fade into the background due to his disinterest in them.

As the film goes on and Bateman kills more and more people his grip on reality becomes more tenuous.  The films ends with with a mind-bender and leaves you thinking what just happened and when you think you got it, you don't.

Verdict: A scathing satire of of yuppie culture of the 1980s that is also about the need to fit in.