The Big Short (2015)

This is dramatic subject matter, but McKay, a comedy director, is all over the place. Making very complicated economic concepts fun and bouncy with celebrity cameos is irreverent and irrelevant and distracting. And all the in-camera dialogue, particularly the explanations that come out and admit that what we have seen is not how things actually happened, pull you out of the movie. McKay’s whimsical direction makes it hard to take any of this seriously.

And it’s sloppy, too. The handheld camera is annoying, there are distracting focus problems throughout, and editing is rough. How is it up for Oscars, especially for editing?

An impressive cast, though. While the direction makes it impossible for any of these characters to have much dramatic depth, Carell is pretty good and Bale as Michael Burry is fascinating. Would have much preferred to see a movie all about Burry.