It's really interesting to see this look at what was happening on Wall Street before the global economic crisis, which began with problems in the American mortgage market during the 2000s. Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell are all excellent as the three men who recognized the dangers, took advantage of the system’s weaknesses, and really represent how poorly regulated and understood things were by both the financial world and government; their greed is something that even King Midas would find shocking. The film moves along quickly – there are numerous storylines that eventually come together to form a captivating story, with a cast performing at their best in this brisk adaptation of Michael Lewis’s often unbelievable book. Using real-life celebrities like Margot Robbie & Selena Gomez to explain some of the more complicated parts of these processes works surprisingly well, and the rest of the performers—particularly Brad Pitt (who I thought resembled Robert Redford), as one of the most unpleasant characters; he was aware of the potential harm their actions would cause ordinary people but continued anyway—Rafe Spall and Finn Wittrock all contribute significantly. However, it doesn't really explore any political angles. It rightly targets the excesses within businesses, but completely avoids examining the failures of regulators and politicians, which creates a certain slant regarding how many more people than just bankers were involved in this catastrophe. There’s a touch of humanity woven throughout, but it sadly makes very clear how unchecked spending and greed won out over any real sense of morality or honesty. The final ten minutes are especially powerful—or perhaps that's too strong a word...?

Source on TMDB