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| Scene from The Wolf of Wall Street |
Welcome to Alternative to What: a weekly column that tries to find a great alternative to driving to the multiplexes. Based on releases of that week, the selections will either be thematically related or feature recurring cast and crew. The goal is to help you better understand the diversity of cinema and hopefully find you some favorites while saving a few bucks. At worse, this column will save you money. Expect each installment to come out on Fridays, unless specified.
THIS WEEK:
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
- Alternative To -
The Big Short (2015)
Is there anything as repulsive to see a movie about as much as people scamming people out of money? Well, that depends on what the approach is. Do you simply go up to someone and reach into their pocket? That seems to be what a whole lot of recent films have been about. In the case of director Adam McKay's The Big Short, it's all about how the housing market watched the world collapse and still did nothing about it. Considering that McKay is also a man who is known for making outrageous comedies, this departure into sorta-drama territory is oddly more noteworthy. Will he be able to find some deeper core to the matter and bring life to a situation? It's pretty tough to say, but it definitely is a film that seems to want to embrace how negligent people are. Is it great cinema? You tell me.
However, there's a certain repulsiveness that may not end up being recognized by The Big Short. Its characters are allowed to be despicable and have moral problems. They aren't the type that average audiences would normally root for, but they definitely have a strange and sinister cockiness that has even drooled into comic book movies. However, there's few that are probably going to age as well, or as memorable, as The Wolf of Wall Street. It's a film that is all about excess where even its three hour running time feels like much. It is an epic all about doing awful things to a detrimental degree. It's also really funny and hard to determine whether or not the director is actually saying that it is okay.
The issue with The Wolf of Wall Street is that the action looks very appetizing to a demographic. When the film was released, stock brokers famously were cheering during the film because of how much fun the film looked. It may have a morality at the end, but it doesn't spell it out and its protagonist doesn't get to have the justice of a happy ending. He simply goes about trying to find new ways to scam people out of money. What makes it work is that Leonardo DiCaprio gives his all and ends up with a performance that is both despicable and magnetic. You totally buy into his shameless attitudes, which impacts the rest of the film's overall enjoyment.
However, there's a certain repulsiveness that may not end up being recognized by The Big Short. Its characters are allowed to be despicable and have moral problems. They aren't the type that average audiences would normally root for, but they definitely have a strange and sinister cockiness that has even drooled into comic book movies. However, there's few that are probably going to age as well, or as memorable, as The Wolf of Wall Street. It's a film that is all about excess where even its three hour running time feels like much. It is an epic all about doing awful things to a detrimental degree. It's also really funny and hard to determine whether or not the director is actually saying that it is okay.
The issue with The Wolf of Wall Street is that the action looks very appetizing to a demographic. When the film was released, stock brokers famously were cheering during the film because of how much fun the film looked. It may have a morality at the end, but it doesn't spell it out and its protagonist doesn't get to have the justice of a happy ending. He simply goes about trying to find new ways to scam people out of money. What makes it work is that Leonardo DiCaprio gives his all and ends up with a performance that is both despicable and magnetic. You totally buy into his shameless attitudes, which impacts the rest of the film's overall enjoyment.
The only real question is if you want to watch a movie about how incompetent people are making a lot of money. To be honest, it's a tough subject to watch mostly because capitalism isn't always the best antagonist on film. Even if there's supposed to be a richer subtext, it does feel like a rather silly evil power to have. Money doesn't have the visual presence that a sword or a gun does. It doesn't even have to show up, and we'll believe that these people are robbing us. While the film definitely works thanks to a lot of dizzying writing, it does manage to escape the problem of capitalism is evil simply by making characters interesting enough to get away with it. Yes, it's repulsive and may turn most people off. However, it's still a unique experience that puts other films on the subject (Wall Street mostly) to shame.
Is The Big Short going to live up to expectations? If The Golden Globes have anything to say about it, there may be a chance that it at least matches its Oscar chances. Even then, it is doubtful that the film is as sharp and biting as The Wolf of Wall Street. The cast is too strong and McKay's involvement with broad comedies don't give the best reassurance. Maybe it will work out, but one can only imagine that these films serve more as a look into the problematic financial situation. Nobody wants to be reminded that they're broke. That's pretty much what these movies will do. The matter is making us care about it.
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