A junior analyst discovers that the investment bank in which he works has amassed so many toxic mortgage backed securities that bankruptcy is almost imminent. This leads to a frantic night where his bosses try to find a way to dump these assets and save the firm.

"Margin Call" is a thriller that examines the beginning of the great financial crisis of 2008 through the eyes of the people who found themselves in the midst of the storm. Chandor uses a docudrama method to recreate these fateful hours. While mostly effective, it eventually makes for a very dry presentation that saps some of the tension from a potentially riveting drama. Add to that the fact that the financial jargon used…

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…

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…

When the shit hit the fan for the banking industry back in 2007 very few people outside the corridors of investment banking really gave a shit. That changed considerably when the fallout affected everyone from the man in the street to wealthy executives. The monumental fuck-ups of these overpaid, bonus obsessed scumbags changed the world...forever.

A fictitious Wall Street investment bank going through a tough time discovers that certain parameters that control the volatile trading limits have been breached and that a critical meltdown of their company is imminent. As complex models of the company's financial stability show serious problems, especially in their mortgage and risk departments, it appears their mountain of toxic debt is going to bury them. 2:00am…

A wide shot of New York City with a fish-eye lens. This is how Margin Call starts. It is not only a shot that marks a great beginning for the career of a potential auteur in J.C. Chandor, but it is also a microcosm of the entire film. New York City is a diverse, yet expensive city to live in, and it's financial centre is about to burst. This is one shot that works as great foreshadowing for what is to come and also one of the reasons why I've learned to like J.C. Chandor's direction. The use of simple means to convey something lofty and grandiose.

Margin Call works for me mostly because of Chandor's direction and the cinematography…

One of the best horror movies of the past few years, and proof that true evil is more likely to be found in the upper floors of office buildings than in spooky, dusty attics, and psychopaths are just as likely to be sipping pinot noir and wearing Brooks Brothers than sitting in the mental ward, drooling onto their bath robe.

But what do you know, you've never held an office job. Well there was that one time, but you were overseas and it was a small company and it nearly collapsed after you left. Not that one lead to the other but it was small and insignificant and dealt with the music industry which, in the grand scheme of things…

Margin Call is a film about the 2008 Financial Meltdown and stars an All-Star cast that includes, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, Mary McDonnell and Stanley Tucci, who all work for the Banking Investment Firm largely responsible for the Meltdown.

The film centers around the Firm going through a round of layoffs and they lay off Stanley Tucci's character but before leaves he gives a flash drive to one of his employees and tells him that there is something very important that he wants him to look at. When the employee (played by Zachary Quinto) sees the troubling news of the Firm basically lending money to banks, mortgages and the auto industry and they are…

I really enjoyed this film. I found the directing style very engaging; it captured the tension what I found a beautiful way. I personally don't like too much fast pace switching of camera angles during conversations but rather just one or two to give the atmosphere that you are a spectator (overall I just find visually more effective) and I think this film did that really well. The colours throughout were bold and fairly intense which I liked a lot. The plot and the script gave a good simplified introduction into an element of the Global Financial Crisis (not nearly as informative as The Big Short), which enhanced the tension and made it really interesting to watch as you try…

Margin Call is an old-style Hollywood film "themed" like some desktop 'app' in 21st century flat screen-and-brushed aluminium aesthetics. That successful juxtaposition is a brilliant achievement, and gives Chandor's debut a rather frank, chilly soulless aura, as rare as it is illuminating. What do I mean by old-style? Well I mean, it's character-driven with brilliantly directed acting and a classically tragic narrative arc to it. I ought to flesh that point out more, but suffice to say it's a feeling.

The apex of said arc is Jeremy Irons' airy soliliquoy as CEO of the bank about to blow the lid off the sub-prime crisis, and in doing so, inevitably implode itself (in real life, Lehman Bros I believe.) It lasts…