When I was in junior high school, my English teacher walked into the classroom one day, placed a pencil on his desk and pointed at it, saying, "All right, give me at least a page about this before the bell rings — and it had better be interesting." We thought he was nuts, but the lesson was a valuable one: When faced with a mundane, dull topic, use your creativity to find any possible angle to hold your readers' attention.
Director Adam McKay uses a similar approach in his 2008 financial-meltdown movie "The Big Short." McKay takes us deep into the world of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations — I sense your eyes glazing over — but makes convoluted financial fraud feel as entertaining and zany as any of his previous comedies such as "Talladega Nights" or "Anchorman."
With Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell in the cast, McKay could have made a film about mortuary workers and it would've put butts in seats. In "The Big Short," the cast get to play a colorful collection of misfits based on real people from the financial sector's fringe — those heretical few who noticed the housing market was based on rigged figures, and bet against it.