Margin Call
2011 Directed by J.C. Chandor
Synopsis
Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat.
A thriller that revolves around the key people at a investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis.
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Margin Call is one of the better fictional films about the economic crisis. In fact, with the competition being so inept (see The Company Men for proof of this) it could well be the best. Rather than chronicling the collapse from the perspective of the average man on the street it takes the braver position of showing how it impacted on the investment bankers that were part of the problem. Considering most people want to lynch these irresponsible number pushers it is interesting to see writer-director, J.C. Chandor, wanting to humanise society’s new public enemy number one.
For the most part he does a good job showing how their lack of foresight brought down the entire house of cards. Over…
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It takes a special talent to make a film about a subject and, for quite a lot of the running time, have much of your audience wonder what the hell anyone is talking about. It has to be a special talent because how else would a film like Margin Call end up being so utterly riveting?
The purported plot sees a troubled Wall Street investment bank wrestle with the decision to sell off all its assets, assets they know are very soon to be worthless, after discovering that the firm has reached the limits of its spending and risk plunging the stock market and banking sector into crisis as a result.
What I watched it as was, "Some bad stuff's…
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It may be as much due to personal empathetic aspects as to the film itself, but I teared up—and not just a little bit—in a movie about goddamn stock trading. That's something. That's really something.
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A movie for tax day.
Airborne disease, nuclear threats, hurricanes, terrorists… I am more frightened by the fragility of our economies, and how frivolous the rest of the world is to some people of power at financial institutions.
This is a world where everyone has a background in engineering. These are MIT graduates, math geniuses with degrees and doctorates that have nothing to do with day trading. They are just the wealthy ones who decided to sell their souls out, take their degree and apply it to personal wealth.
There is an amazing exchange when Seth Bregman asks Jared Cohen if he will be getting fired. When the answer is yes, he Seth says something like "this is my dream.…
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First time I saw this film, I started dozing off and on somewhere around the middle and woke up just in time for the final scene. I attribute this more to the comfortability of the couch I was in at the time than to any supposed dullness in the movie. It's a pretty captivating film, with an impressive cast of actors who all do fine jobs - stand-outs include Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, and, somewhat surprisingly, Demi Moore. The main drawback to the film is its reluctance to immerse the viewer in the business world. By this, I mean that unless you know your economics - and I don't - it's hard to deduce how the whole collapse actually works. You're left just having to take the characters word for it all, and most of them aren't the type of character to inspire trust. Still, Margin Call is a good watch, especially when it focuses on humanity rather than ideas.
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An electrifying piece of cinema. The cast give standout performances in this expertly written and directed film about the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. A must see.
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Made me empathize with the villains.
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In a way, this really isn't treading any new water, but for some reason it all sounds and feels so completely fresh. J.C. Chandor is a voice in the making. Especially after reading some reviews out of Cannes for All Is Lost.
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Pretty hard to follow when you have little knowledge of the financial world!
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I like the subject, so maybe that's why this worked for me, but I think it works on many levels, the exploration of how people justify this sort of action to themselves and how the mob mentality sort of takes over and gives you permission to do things, even though you know what you are doing is going to screw other people over.
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Margin Call is one of those movies that - seemingly unnecessarily - contains a handful of well-known actors. Finding one of these movies is always a treat, as I find these well-known faces often encourage me to watch even the most boring or convoluted movie. I knew that Kevin Spacey was a member of the cast (that is why I chose it to watch before bed) but I found myself consistently surprised by who else I found. Oh, Zachary Quinto's in this? Is that Paul Bettany? Stanley Tucci?! Jeremy Irons!
Though it was difficult at times to understand what exactly was going on - a deliberate choice, given the lack of detail and the technicality of the problem - the… -
An insider perspective of the coming financial crisis that doesn't actually provide a great deal of additional insight that a well written article would. The first half of the film is a series of the same explanation of what is going on as someone then swears and contacts their boss to have everything happen all over again which is just about as boring as it sounds. Once it gets the explanations finally out the of way it gets much better and is quite eye-opening to see that the people with the keys to the financial system really have no idea what is going on. It is frightening to see the scorched earth mentality that they consider with reverence only for…
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Boy did I like this movie. It's slow, broody and the subject matter is pretty dry but the cast and constant movement of the script makes it an excellent story to get absorbed into. Zach Quinto is a stand performer amongst some Hollywood heavyweights. First time I've really been sold on the guy and think after this pitch perfect performance he has a chance of making the step to leading man given the right role. This might not be for everyone, but I loved the journey
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A movie for tax day.
Airborne disease, nuclear threats, hurricanes, terrorists… I am more frightened by the fragility of our economies, and how frivolous the rest of the world is to some people of power at financial institutions.
This is a world where everyone has a background in engineering. These are MIT graduates, math geniuses with degrees and doctorates that have nothing to do with day trading. They are just the wealthy ones who decided to sell their souls out, take their degree and apply it to personal wealth.
There is an amazing exchange when Seth Bregman asks Jared Cohen if he will be getting fired. When the answer is yes, he Seth says something like "this is my dream.…
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The Legal counsellor guy is so lovable.