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.
Steering clear of overt condemnation or adulation of morally dubious characters, this is sophisticated cinema that respects the audience’s ability to follow complex subject matter.
The confident cinematic debut of writer-director JC Chandor, an experienced maker of commercials, Margin Call is the best fictional treatment of the current economic crisis.
Chock-full of terrific performances, Margin Call is the kind of gripping, grown-up film that these days is usually found on the small screen.
Smart, well-acted.
Insightful and never confusing, the picture conjures up a profound sense of lives lived in complete detachment from reality. Like The Social Network it grippingly dramatizes a dry, seemingly impenetrable subject that has huge implications for the way we live.
It's a film that couldn't have timed its release better. A true horror story for our times.
Fine acting and sense of purpose, if occasionally a little too equivocal.
It’s certainly a far more trenchant treatise on the culture of greed, arrogance and head-in-the-sand complicity than Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Perhaps nothing in the film quite compares to the horrid chill of the early sacking scene, but this is a shrewd and confident drama.
It has intelligence and dry wit, but also a sly wink of designer trashiness.
This is the best American film about the money market since Boiler Room.
A cracking thriller.
What’s interesting is how the film becomes an ethical exploration of those who knowingly trade toxic information in an attempt to save themselves.
Margin Call is as relevant as Oliver Stone’s Wall Street was in 1987, but you get the impression it’ll age better. Greed isn’t merely good here, it’s God; and He’s about to smite His acolytes with blazing Old Testament relish.
It doesn't quite develop into either a gripping drama or an enlightening guide to our current economic woes.
The result is a film which works both as a compelling thriller and subtle drama.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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