Not only does it leaven the heavier material but it impels the narrative with a natural momentum. The comedic edge gives the film greater resonance. That background is an asset for The Big Short. The former SNL writer has previously directed a handful of features - all comedies (including Anchorman and its sequel). This is more in McKay’s wheelhouse than one might initially assume. Celebrity chef Anthony Bordain uses a fish stew analogy. (Admittedly, it’s tough to concentrate on what she’s saying). Margot Robbie gives a lesson while enjoying a bubble bath. One device he employs is to hijack celebrities to provide explanations.

McKay goes out of his way to inform viewers about the underlying causes of the instability but he does so with tongue-in-cheek irreverence. The film is both instructive and highly entertaining. The characters are all either real-life people who told their stories to Lewis or slightly fictionalized versions (with the names changed to protect the guilty). The Big Short merges narrative elements with a pseudo-documentary exhumation of what happened during the years leading up to the 2008 collapse.

Using gallows humor, likable protagonists, and a variety of nonstandard filmmaking techniques (like having characters address the audience directly), McKay maintains a high level of energy for more than two hours and dares us to become bored. And one of the major reasons The Big Short succeeds is because McKay does this.

Writing in Vanity Fair’s December 2015 issue, Lewis says the following: “My job, as I saw it, was to make the reader badly want to know about credit-default swaps and collateralized debt obligations.” This, in turn, became McKay’s obligation when he made the movie. In fact, “works” is an understatement for what director Adam McKay has achieved with his improbable adaptation of Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book about the 2008 global financial crisis.

The big short showing