10 Films That Stick It To The Man
4. The Big Short
Based on a book by Michael Lewis, The Big Short is the anti-Wolf Of Wall Street: instead of focusing on one repulsive character and presenting him as the hero, Adam McKay’s movie begins in the 1970s and builds up to the 2008 financial crisis.
In the process, it explains how regulations were relaxed and greed took hold until “the banker went from the country club to the strip club.” There’s no glamourizing of the profession here and its portrayal of events is shockingly accurate, right down to the number of people (including the Federal Reserve chairman) who denied that a crash could happen.
It’s also a damn sight angrier than Martin Scorsese’s film: when the crash hits and thousands are thrown out of work, not only does nobody go to jail but the key players all make money off the fiasco. What happened next? “I have a feeling that in a few years people will be blaming immigrants and poor people,” says Mark Baum (Steve Carell).