at the end of this movie, two of the younger characters (who just did the titular Big Short) go into the abandoned lehman brothers building hours after the great recession began. they have the following exchange:
"this isn't how i pictured it."
"what did you think we'd find?"
"i don't know. grownups."
for me, that exchange perfectly defined the existential horror of coming of age in modern america. the dark truth isn't that evil people are at the wheel, it's that *nobody* is at the wheel, and this movie does such a good job at showing how every layer of this infernal system is purpose-built to make the people in it believe that they have no responsibility for their own actions. everyone is just doing their job, everyone is just following orders, everyone is just responding to market trends. nobody knows what is going on and nobody has to, because they know that they won't feel the consequences of their failures.
i think of this movie often, especially lately. it has remained extremely relevant to american life since it came out and i suspect it'll continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future
