Post-Cinematic Affect and The Big Short (2015) by Aimee Wheeler
Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2015) is a strong example of what Steven Shaviro describes as post-cinematic affect, where cinema prioritises sensory intensity and circulating feelings over classical narrative immersion. Rather than offering a stable, emotionally coherent account of the 2008 financial crisis, the film overwhelms the viewer with speed, noise, anger, and shock, mirroring the abstract and chaotic nature of contemporary capitalism.
In post-cinema, as defined by Denson and Leyda, cinema does not disappear but reconfigures itself in dialogue with digital media and new viewing conditions. The Big Short exemplifies this through its fragmented structure, rapid editing, mixed media formats, and direct address to the audience. Celebrity cameos break the fourth wall to explain complex financial instruments, disrupting narrative continuity in favour of immediacy and impact. These moments are less about emotional identification with characters and more about producing affective responses such as frustration, disbelief, and outrage.
Shaviro’s distinction between emotion and affect is useful here. Emotion is personalised and narrativised, whereas affect is impersonal and pre-conscious. In The Big Short, feelings circulate freely between characters, spectators, and the financial system itself. The repeated scenes of men shouting, arguing, and panicking create what Shaviro might call an “affective machine”, generating value through intensity rather than resolution.
The film also reflects what Casetti calls the relocation of cinema, drawing on aesthetics from television, online explainers, and documentary formats. These strategies acknowledge an audience accustomed to fragmented, multi-screen media environments.
Ultimately, The Big Short does not simply represent the financial crisis; it makes the viewer feel the instability and abstraction of neoliberal capitalism, demonstrating how post-cinematic affect operates as both a formal strategy and a mode of contemporary spectatorship.