Eye-opening ‘Big
Short’ distressing
FILM REVIEW
Odd and self-aware
film follows 2008
financial crisis
By MADELEINE GAUDIN
Daily Arts Writer
A group of angry Wall Street
traders predicting and profiting
off the 2008 economic recession
doesn’t scream
entertainment,
but
writer
and
director
Adam
McK-
ay’s (“Anchor-
man”) “The Big
Short”
makes
for an honest
and captivating
tale of greed,
lies and devas-
tation.
The film stars some of Hol-
lywood’s most handsome men
with some of the world’s ugli-
est haircuts. As bankers and
traders, they predict the crash
through careful analysis of the
housing market as early as 2005
and decide they can profit by
betting banks that the loans
they have given out will default.
Initially, ”The Big Short”
reads as a documentary narrat-
ed by Ryan Gosling’s (“Drive”)
character Jared Vennett (which
begs the question: why doesn’t
Ryan Gosling narrate docu-
mentaries?). While the camera
cuts rapidly through stills from
music videos, ‘for sale’ signs
and celebrity mug shots, Jared
introduces
the
audience
to
the world of 2005 Wall Street.
It’s patchy and quick, moving
quickly between images in a
way that resembles memory. In
fact, the whole movie is filmed
like a memory. Long scenes
are broken up by quick slides
of images, much like how one
might remember a year in their
life.
Although the subject seems
out of place compared to McK-
ay’s
previous
work
(mostly
absurdist Will Ferrell com-
edies), “The Big Short” is pep-
pered with humor even in its
slower moments. Steve Carell
(“Foxcatcher”), the film’s come-
dy veteran, carries much of that
comedic weight, employing the
painful but funny style of com-
edy reminiscent of his character
on “The Office,” Michael Scott.
However, Gosling holds his
own with a sharp wit and mean
deadpan. The humor is dark,
but it serves as a cutter for the
film’s heavy technical jargon
and darker moral undertones.
“The Big Short” sets itself up
to be a movie with a powerhouse
ensemble cast, but the characters
come across more as independent
entities rather than one cohesive
unit. Christian Bale (“The Dark
Knight Rises”) plays an oddball
neurosurgeon-turned-trader,
Michael Burry, who is the first
to discover the housing market’s
dirty little secret. He delivers
one of the film’s strongest perfor-
mances, but unfortunately does
not share the screen with any of
the other leads. While they all
deliver strong performances on
their own, the actors fail to unify
as an ensemble in the way that’s
expected in a story without one
single lead.
The film is odd and self-aware
in a way that comes off as endear-
ing rather than nervous. McKay
knows that one of his greatest
obstacles is the public’s ignorance
or misunderstanding of the com-
plex systems that led to both the
creation and the burst of the loan
bubble behind the 2008 financial
crisis. Because a film can’t have
footnotes and working definitions
into conversation is unnatural,
McKay uses short star-studded
asides to explain the terminology
needed to understand and fully
appreciate the film. Synthetic
CDOs and mortgage security
were never sexy until explained
by Anthony Bourdain and Selena
Gomez. In this regard, the film
seems aware of its role as an edu-
cational tool. It’s important for
the American people to under-
stand the biggest economic crisis
of (most) of their lifetimes and
McKay seems to argue that learn-
ing about it can be fun too.
“The Big Short” isn’t “The Wolf
of Wall Street” and it wants to
make that point clear right away.
Choosing Margot Robbie (“The
Wolf of Wall Street”) as the bomb-
shell cameo who explains mort-
gage bonds in a bubble bath can
only be seen as a nod to the 2013
Wall Street blockbuster. How-
ever, “The Big Short” goes beyond
the glam and scam of its prede-
cessor to get at the heart of this
kind of banking — working class
Americans. In on of the film’s
final scenes, Carell’s character,
Mark Baum, debates not selling
his credit default swaps because
he is disgusted with himself and
the banks whose greed pushed
the loan bubble to burst.
The ending of “The Big Short”
is as satisfying as it is unsettling.
After spending two hours fol-
lowing the ups and downs of the
characters, it’s rewarding to see
Gosling kiss a $47 million check.
But then the camera cuts to a
family living out of their car in a
gas station parking lot after los-
ing their home in the recession.
And therein lies the great tragedy
that “The Big Short” manages to
uncover — for some people the
housing market crash of 2008
was the best thing that ever
happened to them, but for the
over 6 million Americans who
lost their homes that year, it was
the worst thing that ever hap-
pened to them.
“The Big Short” isn’t flashy or
glamorous, but it is eye opening.
It gives its audience an inside
look into the corruption of Wall
Street while still applauding the
oddballs and eccentrics who
are willing to take risks and go
against the grain.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
“Leave me alone to die.”
A-
The Big
Short
Paramount
Pictures
Rave & Quality 16
“The Big Short”
isn’t “The Wolf
of Wall Street.”
The ending is as
satisfying as it is
unsettling.
MOVE MOVIE
“Who cares if I’m pretty if I fail my finals?!”
By REBECCA LERNER
Daily Film Editor
Film is full of clichés about
female friendships. For every
instance of reality in movies like
“Mean Girls”
and
“A
League of Their
Own,”
there’s
a case of boy-
friend stealing
or mud-fighting
that
crumbles
the
feminine
identity
into
ugly
stereo-
types. But the female-driven
“Breathe,” directed by “Inglori-
ous Bastards” star Mélanie Lau-
rent, never delves into cliché,
instead dissecting the intimacy
and complexity of the relation-
ships of adolescent girls.
“Breathe” opens on the timid
Charlie (Joséphine Japy, “My
Way”), a French teenage girl
with parents who are too busy
with a vicious cycle of breaking
up and getting back together to
pay any attention to her. Char-
lie’s suburban life is a drab series
of school and childhood friends
until a cleaving occurs. This
cleaving, is her instantaneous
connection with the beautiful
and enigmatic new girl, Sarah
(Lou de Laâge, “The Wait”).
Sarah and Charlie swiftly
become inseparable. They are an
unlikely pairing, as Sarah’s sta-
tus as the epitome of a “cool girl”
is acutely juxtaposed with Char-
lie’s awkward reticence. Sarah
exudes confidence while she
brags of living in exotic places
with her saintly but absent relief
worker mother. She immedi-
ately charms Charlie and breaks
the rhythm of her monotonous
life. But behind the cigarette
smoke and mirrors of glamorous
French clubs, Sarah has a streak
of cruelty. It’s subtle at first — we
see it in Laurent’s cinematogra-
phy, the way the camera lingers
on Sarah as she makes decisions
about who to socially persecute.
She ruthlessly ices out Charlie’s
childhood best friend and per-
fects the powerful art of making
Charlie feel like her best friend
and the most important person
in her life.
This dubious love is abruptly
altered during a vacation to the
countryside when Charlie makes
the fatal mistake of introduc-
ing Sarah as a classmate, rather
than a friend. After this rather
small incident, their relationship
transforms into the vacillating
hot and cold state of frenemies.
Sarah becomes gruesome in her
malice because of the affection
she so tenderly displays after-
wards. We follow Charlie on the
roller coaster of Sarah’s love,
which takes both of them to plac-
es neither could have imagined.
Though more famous for her
onscreen work, Laurent is no
stranger to screenwriting and
directing. “Breathe” is her sec-
ond feature film. Her first, “The
Adopted,” came out in 2011.
Though similar in both style and
subject matter, “Breathe” shows
great promise for the actress-
turned-filmmaker. Laurent’s dis-
tinctly French style of delicacy
and focus on the small and regu-
lar aspects of life are honed in
“Breathe” and create the sense of
urgency surrounding the film’s
toxic relationship.
But
Laurent’s
successful
choices for “Breathe” aren’t lim-
ited to camerawork — they also
extend to her choice of actors.
Both performances — de Laâge’s
seductive nature as the venom-
ous Sarah and Japy’s transfor-
mation of Charlie from a naïve
girl to a mysterious woman — are
breathtaking.
“Breathe” is a film that is
unafraid to redefine and break
the schemas we have of teenage
girls and their relationships. It
doesn’t fit nicely into a category
— there is humor and love, but
there is also unbearable dark-
ness that will get under your skin
and make you think about it for
days. In its beauty and grotesque
harshness, “Breathe” captures
the true essence of teenage
girls and relationships.
Promising ‘Breathe’
BØRNS at Shelter:
A love letter to fans
By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY
and CARLY SNIDER
Daily Music Editor and Daily Arts
Writer
The Shelter is small, dense
and dark. Exposed ceiling beams
and black support beams give
the space an air of raw authen-
ticity — just the way a venue for
the arts ought to unfold to its
audience. BØRNS graced the
basement of St. Andrew’s Hall
in Detroit on Wednesday night,
enchanting the small crowd
with his long brown locks and
delicate vocals. Not dissimilar
to the main attraction, Phases
prepped the crowd by filling
the room with a flirty, jump-
ing sound as the second of two
openers.
The young crowd seemed
unable to contain its excitement,
though, bursting out in waves of
cheers every few minutes while
waiting for the Michigan native
to take the stage. Stepping onto
the small stage with his band,
BØRNS opened with “Dug My
Heart” and was almost entirely
eclipsed by the shouts, applause
and singing voices of the crowd.
Whether it was an elongated
tone of the keyboard, a smatter-
ing of conversation from the per-
formers or a few quick strums of
a guitar, there was never a silent
moment.
This lack of intimacy is
uncommon for a venue as small
as The Shelter, but it was made
up for with the performance and
few utterances by BØRNS him-
self. His body language — rais-
ing a quivering arm above his
head or bending to croon over
the masses in front of him — told
the crowd that he is completely
consumed in his art. Describ-
ing the crowd as “beatific bod-
ies and glorious spirits,” BØRNS
brought out the more sensual
and warm underlying tones of
his music. He described his audi-
ence as an ocean and dedicated
“Overnight Sensation” to the
crowd by describing the tune as
“a love letter from me to you.”
Wrapping up the evening
with an encore performance
of “Bennie and the Jets” and
“Seeing Stars,” BØRNS flexed
his musical muscle. By ending
with one of his singles from his
first EP, he was able to show how
far he has come as an artist in
such a short period of time. And,
judging by the passion of his fans
and the musical mastery shown
on Wednesday, there is nothing
stopping him from continuing to
do so.
— Carly Snider
***
I
googled
the
word
“pretentious” as I attempted
to gather my reeling thoughts
surrounding BØRNS’s set at The
Shelter on Wednesday. I googled
the word “pretentious” because
I realized the impossibility of
talking about BØRNS without
sounding pretentious.
pre·ten·tious:
adjective
1.
attempting to impress by affect-
ing greater importance, talent,
culture, etc., than is actually
possessed.
I then googled “tentious”
because I was curious if there
was
a
semantically-relat-
ed word for “impressing by
affecting importance, talent,
culture etc., that is actually
possessed.” That would be how
to best describe the experi-
ence of BØRNS. His set, almost
entirely pulled from his debut
album, Dopamine, elevated the
basement of St. Andrew’s Hall,
effectively neutralizing the hot
air into soft coolness mimicked
by the crowd’s sways, subtle
arm waves and smiling faces.
The electro-pop sound crafted
by the Michigan native feels
like a concept album. Each track
touches on a different subtle-
ty in the emotional love story
crafted between its narrator
and subject.
In some cases it was a love
letter from BØRNS to the crowd
with
“Overnight
Sensation.”
Set opener “Dug My Heart” is
easily overlooked between the
musical-liquid
hybrid
magic
of “10,000 Emerald Pools” and
the soaring vocals of “Electric
Love” on the LP, but live the
track’s drum beats vibrated
throughout the room, priming
the crowd for what was to fol-
low. The repetition in “Dopa-
mine” built the crowd a tiny bit
closer to euphoria, and the funk
of “The Fool” kept the spirit
high.
Each song further built up the
bubble created by BØRNS’s sin-
gular, listener-engulfing sound
so much that when the time
came for his two-song encore
of a “Bennie and the Jets” cover
and “Seeing Stars,” the crowd,
band and BØRNS himself felt
fluid in an evening of ecstatic
percussion and smooth delivery.
It’s OK that I sound preten-
tious writing about BØRNS. I
use smooth language and vibe-y
diction to describe the concert,
but in the end it’s BØRNS with
the “importance, talent and cul-
ture” to back me up.
— Christian Kennedy
FILM REVIEW
CONCERT REVIEW
B+
Breathe
Move Movie
Available on
iTunes
6A — Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com