The Hollywood blockbuster dramatizing and demystifying the 2008 financial crisis won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“If you don’t want big money to control government, don’t vote for candidates that take money from big banks, oil, or weirdo billionaires,” director Adam McKay said Sunday night as he accepted the award, echoing the moralizing tone of the movie.
The film was based on Michael Lewis’s 2010 best-selling book of the same title, which told the story of a disparate group of traders who bet against the U.S. housing market in the years before the crash.
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Some critics took issue with the film’s preaching, and questioned the accuracy of emphasizing a small segment of the securities industry.
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But it was generally praised for turning a complex subject into a compelling crowd-pleaser, including clever devices like using actresses Margot Robbie to explain subprime loans in a bubble bath, and Selena Gomez in a casino to dissect collateralized debt obligations.
