History YMMV / TheBigShort

* LoveToHate: Many characters, but there is one who seems to stand out: Mr. Chau, the "CDO Manager" played by Byron Mann, who has dinner with Baum in Las Vegas. Mann's on-point performance oozes so much arrogance and smugness, the audience wishes he would get his comeuppance ''so badly''. But this being the type of movie it is, he obviously doesn't.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To the ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. While ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' follows the shenanigans of Jordan Belfort during his rise and fall, showcasing many of the excesses that he and his associates got away with thanks to their fraud scheme, ''The Big Short'' follows a cast of people betting against fraudulent people like Belfort, outright condemns those attitudes and stunts as [[{{Manchild}} utterly immature]], [[NeverMyFault selfishly irresponsible]], [[{{Greed}} insidiously avaricious]] and/or [[StupidEvil maliciously stupid at their core]], and unlike ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', the film makes a point of showing the devastating consequences of having people like Belfort controlling the reins of the economy and how they both hurt the common person with their reckless, self-centered and greedy behaviour and are inevitably self-destructive both to them and everyone else.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To the ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. While ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' follows the shenanigans of Jordan Belfort during his rise and fall, showcasing many of the excesses that he and his associates got away with thanks to their fraud scheme, ''The Big Short'' follows a cast of people betting against fraudulent people like Belfort, outright condemns those attitudes and stunts as [[Manchild utterly immature]], [[NeverMyFault selfishly irresponsible]], [[{{Greed}} insidiously avaricious]] and/or [[StupidEvil maliciously stupid at their core]], and unlike ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', the film makes a point of showing the devastating consequences of having people like Belfort controlling the reins of the economy and how they both hurt the common person with their reckless, self-centered and greedy behaviour and are inevitably self-destructive both to them and everyone else.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Creator/AdamMcKay's follow up film ''Film/Vice2018'' attracted criticism for being an Anvilicious biopic that frequently partakes in Artistic License – History, two elements that were also present in this film. The difference is that while the ''The Big Short'' did take some license with the true events surrounding the 2007-08 Financial Crisis, it was mostly for the sake of tightening the film's narrative and the film acknowledged the deviations so the audience still knew the facts. The film also didn't come across as too heavy handed with its Aesop because the general public at the time was still largely unaware of the role big banks and mortgage backed securities played in causing the crisis and the film was able to explain it in an informative, easy to follow narrative.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Jeremy Strong of ''Series/{{Succession}}'' as one of the movie's many scumbag finance bros.

** While it won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bale lost the Best Supporting Actor, [=McKay=] lost Best Director, and the movie lost Best Picture. It did have stiff competition between ''[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Fury Road]]'', ''Film/TheRevenant'', and the eventual winner ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'' for Picture, so...
** Carrell was nominated for best comedic performance by the Golden Globes, but that didn't cross over to an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

** Also, the Fourth Wall breaking scenes where they use celebrities to explain some of the more complex economy terms and elements to the audience. Some people consider they help to set the tone of the film and see them as an entertaining way to educate the audience, while others consider they treat them like they were idiots who are incapable of following the story without using attention-grabbing gimmicks. And some people ''still'' have a hard time grasping the complexities even after the explanations.

** [=FrontPoint=] team visiting a recently-built urban development in Florida. It's an almost haunting scene where they see the reality of the real estate bubble firsthand was they discover it's basically a GhostTown. Then it crosses to funny when Danny and Porter find an ''alligator'' living in the pool of one of the abandoned properties and have to walk away in a hurry.
** Later, Baum tells Vinny over phone to go to the meeting room and inform in very calm, very polite way the people from Morgan to fuck off. Fine, that's just Baum being Baum, rude, crude and direct. But Vinny puts down the phone, gets to the room and in [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness a very calm and very polite manner]] informs them that he just had a call from Mark Baum and they are to fuck off. ''And they do''.

--->'''Margot Robbie:''' Basically, Lewis Rainieri's mortgage bonds were amazingly profitable for the big banks. But then they ran out of mortgages to put in them. After all, there are only so many homes and so many people with good enough jobs to buy them...right? So the banks started filling these bonds with riskier and riskier mortgages ''[she is handed a drink]'' -- thank you, Benter -- that way, they can keep that profit machine churning right? By the way, these risky mortgages are called: Sub-prime. So...whenever you hear sub-prime...think: Shit. Our friend Michael Burry found out, that these mortgages bonds that were supposedly 65 percent AAA, were actually just, basically full of shit. So now he's going to short the bonds, which means...bet against. Got it?...Good! ''[DeathGlare]'' Now, ''fuck off''.

* {{Squick}}: For the people who are uninformed and some others who are informed, when Burry puts a tissue in his eye socket in front of his newest employee is this. Sure, he is cleaning his glass eye but the dude is still new and thus unfamiliar with him.
* ValuesResonance: The film manages to take a complex and technical explanation of banking loans and the housing market crash and turn it into a primer into better understanding how the economic systems in place are flawed while also able to be manipulated[[note]]Simply put, shorting stocks is borrowing stock to sell, then buying new stock and returning it to the owner after a quick turnaround. It's anticipating a minor market crash using the theoretical value of the stock, but if the price goes up you lose money because you sold the previous stock at a lower cost. If a company implodes their stock nominally becomes worth nothing, letting you return the stock to the owner making it basically free money[[/note]]. In early 2021 a [[Website/{{Reddit}} Subreddit]] forum saw similar attempts by hedge funds to short the stocks for the Gamestop stores so a targeted campaign set out to make the Gamestop shares skyrocket in value, which in turn impacted those hedge funds as shorting left them with drastically underpriced stock. The event came to be seen as a rare moment where a grassroots scheme managed to poke a dent in the larger corporations.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The various dialogues about the combination of indifference, greed and plain stupidity of people in the banking business, making it clear that the entire system is so deeply flawed, it's a matter of time before a reprisal will happen (and the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue further hammers it down). Not even the main characters are spared, since Rickert ends up chewing up Shipley and Geller when they start to celebrate over their successful buy-out of A-grade swaps.
-->'''Ben Rickert:''' Do you realize what you've done? You've bet against the American economy. And if you win, hardworking people will suffer, so try not to celebrate.

** While it won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bale lost the Best Supporting Actor, [=McKay=] lost Best Director, and the movie lost Best Picture. It did have stiff competition between ''[[Film/Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Fury Road]]'', ''Film/TheRevenant'', and the eventual winner ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'' for Picture, so...

** While it won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bale lost the Best Supporting Actor, [=McKay=] lost Best Director, and the movie lost Best Picture. It did have stiff competition between ''Fury Road'', ''The Revenant'', and the eventual winner ''Spotlight'' for Picture, so...

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: A lot.
-->'''Ben Rickert:''' Do you realize what you've done? You've bet against the American economy. And if you win, hardworking people will suffer, so try not to celebrate.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: [=FrontPoint=] team visiting a recently-built urban development in Florida. It's an almost haunting scene where they see the reality of the real estate bubble firsthand was they discover it's basically a GhostTown. Then it crosses to funny when Danny and Porter find an ''alligator'' living in the pool of one of the abandoned properties and have to walk away in a hurry.

* LoveToHate: Many characters, but there is one who seems to stand out: Mr. Chau, the "CDO Manager" played by Byron Mann, who has dinner with Baum in Las Vegas. Mann's on-point performance oozes so much arrogance and smugness, the audience wishes he would get his comeuppance SO BADLY. But this being the type of movie it is, he obviously doesn't.

* AwardSnub: While it won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bale lost the Best Supporting Actor, [=McKay=] lost Best Director, and the movie lost Best Picture. It did have stiff competition between ''Fury Road'', ''The Revenant'', and the eventual winner ''Spotlight'' for Picture, so...

* InformedWrongness: While we're supposed to view Baum's group as just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what the S&P group is doing is largely still illegal ''and'' borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).
** Fundamentally, while Baum is making money off the financial crash, they haven't caused it or done anything to make it worse, in fact all they've done is what they're supposed to do - look at the facts, look at the data, and invest accordingly in their clients' best interests without lying or fabricating anything. If the banks or the ratings agencies had just done that, the crisis either wouldn't have happened or been a lot milder.

* InformedWrongness: While we're supposed to view Baum's group as just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what the S&P group is largely still illegal ''and'' borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).

** Fundamentally, while Baum is making money off the financial, crash they haven't caused it or done anything to make it worse, in fact all they've done is what they're supposed to do - look at the facts, look at the data, and invest accordingly in their clients' best interests without lying and fabricating anything. If the banks or the ratings agencies had just done that, the crisis either wouldn't have happened or been a lot milder.

* InformedWrongness: While we're supposed to view the Baum's group just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what S&P group is largely still illegal ''and'' borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).

* {{Squick}}: For the people who are uninformed and some others who are informed, when Burry put a tissue in his eye socket in front of his newest employee is this. Sure, he is cleaning his glass eye but the dude is still new and thus unfamiliar with him.

* YouFailLogicForever: While we're supposed to view the Baum's group just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what S&P group is largely still illegal ''and'' borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: The film has several, but Creator/MargotRobbie's explanation of sub-prime mortgages, as delivered while lying in a bubble bath sipping champagne, is a strong contender.
-->'''Margot Robbie''': Basically, Lewis Rainieri's mortgage bonds were amazingly profitable for the big banks. But then they ran out of mortgages to put in them. After all, there are only so many homes and so many people with good enough jobs to buy them...right? So the banks started filling these bonds with riskier and riskier mortgages [''she is handed a drink''] -- thank you, Henry -- that way, they can keep that profit machine churning right? By the way, these risky mortgages are called: Sub-prime. So...whenever you hear sub-prime...think: Shit. Our friend Michael Burry found out, that these mortgages bonds that were supposedly 65 percent AAA, were actually just, basically full of shit. So now he's going to short the bonds, which means...bet against. Got it?...Good! [''DeathGlare''] Now, fuck off.

--->'''Jared''': I'm jacked. I'm jacked! I'm jacked to the [[SuddenlyShouting TITS!]]\\
'''Mark''': [[TheComicallySerious Good.]]\\
'''Jared''': You feel it?\\
'''Mark''': No.

--> '''Ben Rickert''': Do you realize what you've done? You've bet against the American economy. And if you win, hardworking people will suffer, so try not to celebrate.

* YouFailLogicForever: While we're supposed to view the Baum's group just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what S&P group is largelly still illegal AND borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).

* YouFailLogicforever: While we're supposed to view the Baum's group just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what S&P group is largelly still illegal AND borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't).

* {{Squick}}: For the people who are uninformed and some others who are informed, when Burry put a tissue in his eye socket in front of his newest employee is this. Sure, he is cleaning his glass eye but the dude is still new and thus unfamiliar with him.