Rhapsodies

I wanted to call this week’s Scarecrow selection white-collar crimes, but since none of the things mentioned it these films were technically illegal, I decided to just call it stocks and bonds. 

Starting with the bond side, the first film on my list, Adam McKay’s The Big Short tells the story of the lead up to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 the people who saw it coming… and cashed in. 

I really liked this film. All of the performances were fantastic, most notably Christian Bale as the eccentric investor Michael Burry who first sees the problem and the potential of the upcoming disaster, Steve Carell as Jake Baum, a cynical hedge fund manager who discovers the looming threat by accident and feels obligated to be canary in the coal mine while still getting some of his own, And finally Ryan Gosling as  Deutsche Bank salesman Jared Vennett, who narrates the whole story, breaking the fourth wall with gleeful cynicism 

Best of all was the storytelling in general. While this is almost entirely based on a true story, most of the names have been changed and when something in the plot deviates from the truth, the characters will turn to the camera and tell you exactly how different it is from the actual story. Every time we have to deal with the complex and boring arcana of the brokerage world (and the film makes it clear that this is the reason they get away with most of this.) They provide metaphors to explain everything (my favorite is when economist Richard Thaler and Selena Gomez demonstrating how the bubble will burst by showing an entire casino betting on whether Selena will win a hand of blackjack)

Frankly this film is going into my Rhapsodies bibliography Micheal Burry is way too much like Brian (minus the hyperactivity)

Now for stocks.

I had heard a lot about Oliver Stone’s Wallstreet, over the years. With Micheal Douglas’s  Gordon Gekko becoming almost the personification of corporate greed, it became so ubiquitous that I even had an economics professor who paraphrased the “greed is good” quote. (Though admittedly he changed the context to make it sound a little less psychotic) So I was looking forward to seeing if it lived up to its reputation. 

Regrettably, I discovered why one should not rush when grabbing the first disk that says “Wallstreet” on the Oliver Stone shelf, because when I got home I was very disappointed to discover what I had was the sequel, Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps. 

The film opens with Gekko coming out of prison for insider trading. He supposedly has seen the error of his ways… He even wrote a book about it. Meanwhile, his daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan)is engaged to an up and coming young broker named Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) However when his mentor commits suicide after a hostile takeover of the firm, He seeks Gecko’s advice.

This was hard to watch. It mostly assumed the viewer would be aware of the original film and suffers if you weren’t. After that, it felt as if it could never make up its mind whether it was a satire or a drama. Despite these problems, it’s held up by Stone’s craft… but even this falls flat with a clumsy attempt at giving the film a happy ending.