• For most Americans the financial crisis of 2008 was devastating. Foreclosure, bankruptcy and recession all followed the popping of the housing market bubble that no one saw coming. No one except a few key people who were able to see through the hype brought on by an enormous amount of wealth generated through deceitful tactics by big banks and mortgage lenders. Despite the fact that millions of Americans were directly impacted by these shady practices, very few people can explain to you 11 years later what even happened. As an undergraduate economics major I have a pretty good understanding of what went down given my experience in market analysis, but to most working families, they only know what little the media tells them. The film The Big Short does a remarkable job of bringing the average joe watching the film right into the mix through an array of narrative elements allowing for us to be placed back in the pre-crisis setting and see it through to the beginning of the recession. Through continuous use of 4^th wall breaking, and interjection by cast members and celebrities, The Big Short takes us through the journey and thought process of three different groups of guys with connections to Wall Street who foresaw the collapse of the American housing market and took the risk of capitalizing on the deep rooted corruption that was being kept from the public eye for well over a decade.

Analysis (Topic Sentences)

• The Big Short does a really good job of breaking a common practice in film making where the director Adam McKay chooses to take intermittent breaks and disrupting the main narrative of the story to address to the audience and provide clarity to a nuanced topic. They do this rather than sticking to the standard method of simply showing what is taking place through elaborate storytelling, breaking what’s called the “show not tell rule” of film making.
• Adam McKay’s use of celebrity cameos provides the viewer who may be having a hard time keeping up with the intentionally difficult to comprehend Wall Street jargon a sense of ease as having pop culture icons like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez explain it in layman’s terms.
• Ryan Gosling’s character, Jared Vennett plays a crucial role in McKay’s attempt to make sure us as viewers are following along, serving as a charismatic narrator as someone who profited significantly from the very crisis that the film is centered around. As one of the only bankers aware of the impending collapse credited to mass defaults of subprime mortgage loans, he retroactively talks to the audience and sheds light on the absurdity of the arrogant sketchiness of the big banks rating these loans. He may as well be in your home watching the film with you and pausing it whenever he wants to harp on what he thinks is important for you to understand.

Evaluation

• In the opening scene of The Big Short Jared Vennett’s character serves as a narrator who is heavily invested in the banking world. He understands that the causes of the 2008 financial crisis remain a mystery to most people and speaks as though he’s giving a presentation on what actually went down, as if he were the director of the film. The creative techniques used to dumb down the unnecessarily nuanced realities of the financial dealings that led to something so disastrous, it will continue to cripple American families for generations.

I already have this outline, it just needs to be at least 1500 words