Opening this weekend: “Margin Call”

Release Date: 21 October 2011
Genre: Thriller
Cast: Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey
Directors: J.C. Chandor
Writer: J.C. Chandor
Studio: Roadside Attractions

Plot:
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.

A.O. Scott’s NYT review:

There have been reports of hurt feelings among the bankers and brokers who have been the focus of public ire and Occupy Wall Street protests. And it is true that those poor, hard-working souls have been demonized and caricatured. Surely the much-reviled 1 percent does not consist of plutocrats in top hats or predators in blue suits, but of human beings just like the other 99 percent of us, albeit with more money and perhaps more to answer for.

That, in a way, is the message of J. C. Chandor’s “Margin Call,” which does a great deal to humanize the authors — and beneficiaries — of the 2008 financial crisis. But the film, relentless in its honesty and shrewd in its insights and techniques, is unlikely to soothe the wounded pride of the actual or aspiring ruling class. It is a tale of greed, vanity, myopia and expediency that is all the more damning for its refusal to moralize.

Looks good. Why not see it this weekend?

Comment Archive