A reflection on Tom McCarthy's 'Spotlight'

Brittany Harvey has written at LCB in the past. Here she is again with some thoughts on the Oscar-nominated film Spotlight:

Having watched my son learn to crawl and walk over the last year, I have not seen many movies. However, I did see Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight (2015), and I cannot imagine many films, if any, being better. The acting, writing, directing, the score, etc. are all fantastic. When these things are good, however, it really just means that a film is a fine specimen of its craft. And, while Spotlight happens to be well-crafted, it also happens to be one of those rare movies that remind us why we stare at a big screen production in the first place. When Spotlight ends, you wish there were more, though you realize to add any more might spoil what is already perfect.

A reflection on Adam McKay's 'The Big Short'

They knew everything, and they knew nothing.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Brad Pitt, The Big Short (2015) packs a great deal into what feels like a rather brief two hour and ten minute explanation of the 2008 housing crisis. This feat isn't really a surprise; Michael Lewis’ book covers the housing bust in a mere 200 pages or so. That said, Adam McKay's comedic talents as a director drive both the film's sense of brevity and its ability to surprise audiences through a conflation of two conflicting tones: the tragic and the comedic. 

A director whose reputation is staked on such films as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and Anchorman 2 (2013) is a somewhat unexpected choice to direct one of the first major films to do combat with Wall Street and the housing crisis. Except The Big Short's message would be just as helpful for curing Ron Burgundy of his goofball misogyny as it is in alerting civilians to the banking industry's habitual malpractice. The director's heart is in the right place and he is capable, but is the goal of the film even possible, that is to say, can a film, as opposed to a legislature or a tidal wave, solve a nation's financial woes?

When Gosling's Jared Vennett breaks the fourth wall at the start of the film, he's yelling, "Cannonball!" but adding a seriously guys before splashing into some rather deep waters.