The Big Short
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 11, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanDec 24, 2015
The Big Short, which he directed and wrote with Charles Randolph from the book by Michael Lewis, jumps off the screen in every scene and pins an elusive subject firmly in place. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 22, 2015
The Big Short is the film that “The Wolf of Wall Street” wanted to be. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2015
It plays the whole absurd shell game for laughs, even as it acknowledges that the last and bitterest laugh is on the rest of us. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 10, 2015
Only in America, though, could filmmakers illuminate such a dire subject, and the financial debacle that ensued, with the sort of scathing wit, joyous irreverence and brilliant boisterousness that make The Big Short an improbable triumph. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 10, 2015
A true crime story and a madcap comedy, a heist movie and a scalding polemic, The Big Short will affirm your deepest cynicism about Wall Street while simultaneously restoring your faith in Hollywood. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 10, 2015
It’s impossible to fathom how writer-director Adam McKay has turned this material into one of the funniest and yet most sobering, not to mention one of the most entertaining movies of 2015. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 10, 2015
Simply the most relentlessly entertaining film of the last few months. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDec 9, 2015
I suppose you could call The Big Short a comedy. It’s very, very funny. But it’s also a tragedy. Behind every easy drive-by laugh is a sincere holler of outrage. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 30, 2015
The best film of the year? Possibly … Read full review
91
Portland OregonianJeff BakerDec 22, 2015
A highly entertaining, informative movie about how the subprime mortgage crisis led to a worldwide financial meltdown in 2007-08. The fact that such a movie is so unusual is one big reason why the meltdown occurred and why it easily could happen again. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 23, 2015
The Big Short manages to entertain you while making you really, really mad. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 10, 2015
The film packs in so much information and comedy, it would be fun to see it twice: not just to take in what it has to tell us, but also to laugh all over again. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 10, 2015
So expert are the performers that you wind up rooting for Burry, Baum, and the others despite yourself, knowing full well that they are fuelled by cynicism -- by an ardent faith that the system will and must fail. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 10, 2015
With its cartoonish pace, larger-than-life characters and detours into farce and agitprop, this movie captures the accelerated pace of life in the financial markets and the vast scale of their mendacity far more vividly than a naturalistic drama could. Read full review
90
New York Daily NewsGersh KuntzmanDec 9, 2015
Taking Michael Lewis’ seminal book about the meltdown as source material, director Adam McKay channels his own anger into something rarely even attempted by Hollywood, let alone pulled off: a comedy about a tragedy. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 5, 2015
McKay approaches this adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book with wit, energy and a surprising degree of clarity. But if the movie is a crackerjack entertainment, it’s one with a conscience. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesDec 23, 2015
McKay makes moral outrage wickedly entertaining. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerDec 24, 2015
The Big Short has a reckless, off-balance energy, with an ending that doesn’t really end the uncertainty: The collapse could happen again, no joke. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 24, 2015
See the movie. It’s a treat. And educational, too. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 22, 2015
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. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 16, 2015
The Big Short becomes not just amusing and explanatory, a real tour de force for its fast-talking cast. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 10, 2015
A hell of a hilarious time at the movies if you're up for laughs that stick in your throat. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyDec 10, 2015
It really is quite a movie: entertaining and engaging, but also mortifying; a good alternate title might be "American Horror Story." Read full review
85
The VergeTasha RobinsonDec 10, 2015
McKay's film is coated in sugar to make it go down easy, but at its center, it's a bitter pill to swallow. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerDec 9, 2015
In the end, McKay’s edu-tainment tactics work, even if the laughs aren’t as hearty as his broader work with Ferrell. The Big Short pulls off its own oddball gambit: grabbing attention through fringe wonkiness rather than a tantalizing glimpse at bro-banker lifestyles. Read full review
83
The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinNov 13, 2015
The Big Short ends up an energetic, absorbing version of these events, marked deeply by its director’s uniquely surreal vision. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraJan 18, 2016
Witty, absurd and far more entertaining than it has any right to be, this could finally shed light on the financial crisis for those of us who found it all too boring to contemplate. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 8, 2015
When a Hollywood comedy turns the crime of the century into a lark, you know a huge gamble has been chanced and won. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 13, 2015
The Big Short means to infuriate its audience, but it’s smart enough to know that such an approach doesn’t preclude a film from being darkly, cathartically funny as well. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 24, 2015
But there is so much information to process in The Big Short that only hedge fund managers and stock brokers will be able to track every nuance and shading of this complicated story. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughDec 22, 2015
Only occasionally, as in “Thank You for Smoking” (2005), do these men — and the audience — understand that bucking the system doesn’t always make you less a part of it. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 11, 2015
The actors play their roles to the hilt, but in the end, the role of these investors in extenuating the crisis they took advantage of is played down, as is the disastrous life consequences of all those who were severely hit by it. Read full review
75
TheWrapInkoo KangNov 13, 2015
The film’s compassion for everyday Americans...along with its energetic determination to entertain, enlighten, and infuriate make it a laudable surprise. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerDec 15, 2015
Even if it falls a little short as a character study, the fact that it’s both hugely weird and hugely watchable is impressive. Read full review
70
VarietyAndrew BarkerNov 13, 2015
There’s an unmistakable, scathing sense of outrage behind the whole endeavor, and it’s impossible not to admire McKay’s reckless willingness to do everything short of jumping through flaming hoops on a motorcycle while reading aloud from Keynes if that’s what it takes to get people to finally pay attention. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 22, 2015
It all comes down to men behaving badly and greed rules all, though at least you’ll laugh and seethe along the way. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 10, 2015
If a film can essentially succeed while also remaining essentially frustrating, here's a prime example. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 23, 2015
Few of the characters feel fully fleshed out. McKay's Big Short also lacks a certain nuance in its third act, when McKay's agenda becomes abundantly, ham-handedly clear. Still, it's hard not to be outraged by what is learned. Read full review
60
The GuardianNigel M SmithNov 15, 2015
McKay’s attempt to cover so much ground is admirable; and the outrage that courses throughout is deeply felt. But his busy execution...feels labored. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 24, 2015
McKay's frustration about the financial crisis is obvious, his instinct of how to engage viewers less so. Buyer beware. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 23, 2015
Upon leaving The Big Short, audiences are likely to feel less enlightened than bludgeoned with a blunt instrument, albeit one wrapped in layers of eye-catching silks and spangles: You may be too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineZach LewisDec 7, 2015
Its fourth-wall-breaking wags a finger at the perceived facile nature of celebrity-driven mass culture even as it ultimately condescends to audiences. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 13, 2015
On their own, individual scenes are effective enough in semi-farcically portraying the ignorance, avoidance and/or downright denial by the practitioners of bad loans. Together, however, they are wearying in their repetitive nature. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithDec 10, 2015
At the end of it all comes McKay’s big angry harrumph about the meaning of the crisis — a sign of failed, frustrated satire. If you can make your message clear through comedy, there’s no need to say, “Here’s my moral.” A funnyman can’t afford to get caught wagging his finger. Read full review
10
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonDec 8, 2015
McKay's bumptious movie awkwardly combines fourth-wall-breaking gimmickry and flaccid indignation with the goofball energy that defines his comedies. Read full review
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