Marshall

First Hit:  One of many inspirational stories about this amazing man and his power to change racism in our country.

One of the best things about this film was that Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was not allowed to speak in court for the accused he was defending. Marshall was sent by the NAACP around the country to defend blacks (colored people) in courts of law. In some cases, because he didn’t have a license to be a defending attorney in some states, he needed a sponsoring attorney.

It’s December 1940 and Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a soft-spoken insurance lawyer, just finished a case. His office manager, his brother Irwin (John Magaro), surprises Sam that they need publicity and extra money, so he sponsors Thurgood who is going to defend a black man against a white woman’s rape charge. Their first meeting doesn’t go very well as Sam doesn’t like the idea of being involved in a criminal case, let alone one that is defending a black man. Sam’s worried about public opinion and what it will do to his business.

After meeting with the defendant Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), Thurgood and Sam believe him to be telling the truth that he did not rape Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). Entering court, Sam tries to tell the judge that Marshall will be trying the case and presents the sponsoring paperwork. Judge Foster (James Cromwell) obviously has a thing against the NAACP and refuses to honor Marshall being allowed to try the case. In fact, he states that Marshall can sit at the defendant’s table but cannot utter a word and if he does, Marshall and Sam will be charged with contempt.

The film does a wonderful job of showing how Marshall was able to influence, engage, and mentor Sam into being a great criminal lawyer.

This film is about the power and influence of Thurgood on people to do the right thing and how he was able bring out the power of belief in others.

I thought the film did an excellent job of showing the 1940's and how the fight against racism was slowly evolving and that Marshall was one of leaders and influencers.

Boseman was excellent as Marshall. How he demonstrated and showed the swagger and the inner belief needed to lead racial change in our country was wonderfully convincing. Gad was amazing. I loved his evolving understanding of how to be a good lawyer on the side of right, which was congruent with his inner belief structure. Brown was very strong as the defendant, he showed a perfect level of fear. Hudson was wonderful as the husband abused woman looking for a little love in her world. Cromwell was the perfect judge. His gruff nature was excellent. Jacob and Michael Koskoff wrote a powerful script. Reginald Hudlin did a great job of creating a feel and mood of the times while making the audience see the ways change in America came to us, one case at a time.

Overall:  It was a pleasure to watch this film as it provided a small glimpse of history.

The Big Short

First Hit:  This film amazingly and with clarity explains how trusted financial bankers and Wall Street traders used their greed and arrogance to create a mortgage system that collapsed and ruined the lives of 10’s of thousands of people.

The impact of the mortgage credit bubble bursting in the mid-2000s affected thousands upon thousands of people. Not since the 1929 crash had so many families lost their homes, their jobs, and ended up on the street. Why?

Because Wall Street bankers and others running hedge funds thought they were smarter than everyone else and deserved to make as much money as they could at the expense of other people. The sad part was that these guys either; never thought about how it might hurt others, or they didn’t care about anything or anybody else except themselves.

There is something amazingly depressing about our society that promotes ways for people to act in the way they did. To teach us about this complex situation, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay wrote a quirky and intelligent script based on true characters and fact while using various ways to tell the story.

They used odd vignettes with Selena Gomez and Margo Robbie playing themselves and had them share fun examples of how the scheme worked. Director McKay also had one character as a narrator allowing him to break the fourth plane and speak to the audience directly, then drop right back into his character. All this added to the quirkiness of this film.

In the story Christian Bale played the extremely intelligent Michael Burry who predicted the fall of the market. This highly focused numbers guy read and analyzed each loan in many of the packaged loan portfolio bundles and saw how their high rating belied the loans within them.

There was Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), a big bank trader who knew the banks were packing high risk and junk loans with good ones to hide their risk. He wanted to find a company that would allow him to bet against his own company. He also narrated from time to time. Mark Baum (Steve Carell) a trader who felt that there was a lack of integrity by most of the people in the world. He was always railing against society and how it rips people off. He and his team did their research by going to Florida and talked with the people who owned or rented the homes that were in these portfolios.

For example; when he learned that a female stripper owned 4 homes and a condo and didn’t make any down payments in purchasing them, he was convinced. Then there is Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittlock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) who accidentally picked up a prospectus while being turned down by Citi-Bank to trade on their floor. Reading the prospectus their interest was sparked and they dug deeper.

After seeing the numbers, they asked their friend and retired famed trader Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) what he thought. These four groups (and their people) ended up being right. They bet the market would fail, it did, and they made a ton of money. I didn't get the sense they felt good about it because they knew people were going to lose their homes, banks were going to fail, and that the federal government (read this as taxpayers) would bail out the the arrogant bankers and their companies. To add insult to injury, these bankers took their annual yearly bonuses, and the banking laws changed little.

Carell was manic in a good way. He embodied many people’s sense of outrage at how people take advantage of others and don’t care. His unfiltered way of interacting with people is what many want to be like. Gosling was smooth in transitioning from a character in the film and also the narrator. Bale was almost uncomfortably quirky in his amazing portrayal of a disconnected numbers genius. He sold me on his character’s solid belief that he knew what and when the bust would happen. It was amazing when he walked out of the office one last time and posted his company’s % gain. Wittlock and Magro were perfect as the small time fund managers, who were making great trades and wanting to play with the big banks. Their bright enthusiasm and commitment was spot on. Pitt was interesting in his role as a transformed trader that wanted to help his friends. Randolph and McKay wrote an outstanding script by making this complex issue understandable. McKay’s direction worked and made this into a top notch film.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about how our financial system failed and was left with some fear that it may happen again if we don’t watch ourselves.