We saw The Big Short film at the Orpheum Picture Palace in Cremorne the other night. It is based upon a book called ‘The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine’ by Michael Lewis, a financial journalist who decided to expose the true nature of the forces that gave rise to the crash of 2008. I haven’t read the book yet but if the film reflects it accurately its power comes from the sheer force of the anger combined with dark comedy. The comedy is critical to the way the film delivers the complexities of the financial system and those potentially mind numbing numbers involved. Having the deep layers of sub prime mortgaging and the packaging ruse that was used to mask the real levels of debt delivered by a naked girl up to her neck in bubble bath was one of the more memorable moments. This film was a riveting experience about a subject that normally can be expected to leaves us desperate to escape. And yet there we were totally mesmerised for two hours sometimes laughing, most of the time smiling in the face of the evident decline of western civilisation at the hands of full-blown casino capitalism. At the end in the final statements that scrolled down the screen, we learn that the man who had offered his advice to the US Federal government well in advance of the catastrophe that left 6 million people dispossessed of their homes in the US alone, was himself investigated by the FBI (Michael Burry played by Christian Bale). Only one person was charged with a criminal offence and he was small fry. Bankers have taken the taxpayers’ bale out and paid themselves more bonuses.
I came out of this movie wondering why we were so complacent because nothing since then has changed! Time to cash in your shares if you have any and start spending on the things that you enjoy or matter to you. It’s no longer the era of the SKIN generation (Spend Kids Inheritance Now) but a new SMOLBAIL world- Spend Money On Life Before All Is Lost! If you don’t come out of the movie ready to Rock n’ Roll while you can, you must have overdosed on popcorn or slept through it having imbibed too many glasses of wine over dinner beforehand.