★★★★★

If you watch only one docudrama this year watch Too Big to Fail. This is a star studded incredibly well acted movie that really cuts to the heart of the matter. Wall Street banks thought they had a God given right to engage in whatever criminal activity they wanted. If they bet wrong the federal government had to bail them out. This was certainly the case with AIG.

There are so many actors you will recognize in this. James Woods gives a powerful performance in a role that seems to have been written specifically for him. Kathy Baker was a pleasant surprise. She did phenom work in the Jessie Stone franchise. It was a pleasure to see Cynthia Nixon in something besides that God awful Sex and the City. She actually delivered a good performance. I love the way they wrote her character as “the every-man’s way of understanding this.” To understand that statement you have to watch the movie and get to the scene where everyone is explaining how this all happened and just how bad it really is. The point in time where they define Too Big to Fail.

I gotta say William Hurt came out of nowhere in this movie and really delivered. I personally haven’t seen him in much these past few years, but he’s still go it. Paul Giamatti is, as always, Paul Giamatti. They even really made him look a lot like Ben Bernanke.

If you want to make an evening of Wall Street crime that really happened and screwed all of us without a single Bank CEO going to prison, start with The Big Short. Learn about the one small group of people who actually saw this and made money. Then learn about the people who actually caused it by watching this movie.

Too Big to Fail final note

Pay very special attention to the end. How Wall Street bankers took the cash injection that was supposed to go to you and me in the form of low cost loans and mortgage bail outs and what they did with it. Bonuses and golden parachutes for the people who caused this global catastrophe.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.