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 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…

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,…

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…

"Margin Call" is a surprisingly nimble and clear hypothesis on how the financial meltdown of 2008 may have happened. An exceptional cast of movie favorites attaches a human face to an otherwise anonymous industry that is embodied by generic white collar, white guy who wants to take your life savings. Just do not worry about what they do with it. There is definitely a firmly entrenched hierarchy. When a high risk analyst completes a recently fired employee's work, he realizes,…

This compact drama takes place over 48 hours mainly in the confines of a Wall Street trading company just as the market crash of 2008 was about to hit and change capitalism. As Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) is being made redundant, he hands a colleague a file, which could lead towards the collapse of the company. What follows is pretty much just men in expensive suits doing a lot of talking; meeting in boardrooms, bathrooms & park benches. As the meetings…

Margin Call is a taut boardroom thriller that tells the story of an investment firm during a perilous twenty-four hour period in the early stages of the financial crisis in 2008. After a series of company lay-offs within the firm, an entry-level analyst uncovers information that could possibly prove to be the downfall of the company. A sleepless night lies ahead as decisions both financial and moral in nature need attending to; the outcomes of which could destroy the lives…

Margin Call follows a major investment firm who must come to terms with the worthlessness of their mortgage securities and figure out how to survive. It's a timely story told over 24 hours, presented by an all-star cast of many of my favorite actors.

So why is it such a disappointment? There's no real suspense, even when the film is obviously trying to make us nervous. Every time something big comes down -- "Oh, no, the BOSS is here; we're…