plug: The Big Short (2015)
“A few outsiders and weirdos saw what no one else could … saw the giant lie at the heart of the economy.”
Welcome to today’s plug, a quick recommendation of an oft-forgotten film, cult classic, or movie that is dying to be rewatched // We send plugs Tuesday + Thursday //
You already know that we’re going to be talking about GameStop.
If you’re unfamiliar with all the details, this Planet Money episode and this Today, Explained episode do good jobs explaining what happened last week.
Essentially, when you strip out the complexity and nuance, the internet coordinated turning buying GameStop stock into a meme to screw over a bunch of hedge funds and get rich doing it.
The David vs. Goliath meets eat the rich nature of the story made it irresistible. And the memes!
We had a lot of fun for a few days. Now Netflix and MGM are sprinting to make films about the stock-market mess, something any idiot could have predicted.
This brings us to the plug: The Big Short.
Naturally, Adam McKay’s comedy-drama about the housing bubble/doomsday machine that led to the 2007 financial crisis and a global economic meltdown is an obvious recommendation to make at the moment. It’s a hilarious, infuriating movie that makes for a disorienting viewing experience. McKay’s background in sketch (he was SNL’s head writer during one of its best eras) is brilliantly utilized as he highlights the absurdity of our economic system. The dialogue is sharp while managing to make something as boring as subprime bonds interesting.
It doesn’t hurt that he has an all-star cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, and Brad Pitt with cameos by Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and Anthony Bourdain (side note: read this right now). But it’s McKay’s vision to turn this American story of greed and negligence into a Monty Python film. McKay could have retitled the film The Meaning of Life (in America) if people wouldn’t have said “pffft, stupid” or “Isn’t that a Monty Python movie?”
Anyway, eat the rich and watch The Big Short.
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