Oscars 2016: Ranking Every Best Film Nominee From Worst To Best

7. The Big Short

Harsh indictments of those responsible for the miserable state of the world's economy are always welcome, and bankers really don't catch a break with Adam McKay's tongue-in-cheek show trial of a movie. Half a beginner's guide to financial collapse and half a heist movie of sorts, The Big Short's protagonists are a group of men who seek to exploit a system that they are partially responsible for and complicit in perpetuating. Because they aren't as unfavourable as the men actually responsible for the bad market, they gain our sympathies. Not much, but it's there, and it works. Christian Bale's barefoot MD-turned-analyst, Ryan Gosling's smooth talking master planner and Steve Carrell's outraged hedge fund manager are all fantastic characters to watch go through with their plan to bet against the poisoned housing market; as far as attempting to draw in a larger viewer base who would essentially rather staple their eyeballs than watch overly talk-y films about the economy, they are the best men for the job. Of course, the subject matter is going to be a little impenetrable for some tastes, but McKay - a bizarre choice to helm the film - presents it all in the most entertainingly digestible way possible. He also makes whoever agrees with the 'bizarre choice' opinion ultimately eat those words.