Eric dares to give 28-year-old risk analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) USB memory stick-stored data on mortgage-backed portfolio security volatility exceeding the 107-year-old firm’s market capitalization on 5 – 6 days over the previous two weeks. Peter successively explains the impending consequences for the $1,000,000,000,000-company to:
- Trading desk head Will Emerson (Paul Bettany); and
- 23-year-old co-analyst Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley).
Despite opposing the firm’s disdain for counterparty and trader integrity and in the midst of spending $1,000 daily to keep his liver cancer-stricken dog alive, 34-year tenured floor head Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey) forces himself to problem-solve. He gets the impending socio-economic catastrophe to the senior executive attentions of:
- Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore); and
- Ramesh Shah (Aasif Mandvi)
Comments
DerdriuMarrinerJun 3, 2023
Without giving away the ending, I see that this film is indeed tragic. It takes place during the devastating 2007-2008 financial crisis. I noted the ease in the dialogue with using financial language, so I checked Wikimedia about J.C. Chandor's background. He comes from a family of investment bankers, and he also has worked in investment banking.
I would recommend viewing this film. A really poignant aspect of this film is that employees are expected to put their best efforts into one day's huge sellout of the firm's recklessly promoted product, even though, for many of them, that is their last day. Afterward, the firm's CEO, John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) smirks that, in the aftermath of the sellout, the firm will make a huge amount of money.
Another tragedy is the firm's breakup of a friendship, by firing one and keeping and promoting the other. The words of warning, "Be careful," take on significance, as the one who is not fired becomes the protegee of the insensitive, manipulative division head, Jared Cohen (Simon Baker).
Demi Moore poignantly plays Sarah Robertson, who had warned the firm about the dangers of the financial promotions one year previously. She is made the sacrificial victim by being blamed for the crisis. As CEO Tuld says to her: I need a head, and it's yours, not Cohen's (Simon Baker).
DerdriuMarrinerJun 1, 2023
J.C. Chandor films impress me with their realism. My favorite is All Is Lost. (Robert Redford listed J.C. Chandor as the only person who benefited from Sundance Film activities to turn around and thank him by offering him involvement in a film, All Is Lost.)
Happy and sad things occur in Margin Call, which I would categorize as ending somewhat happily for one in particular, unhappily for some and tragically for one sentient canine.
Margin Call, like A Most Violent Year and All Is Lost, was riveting.
WriterArtistMay 30, 2023
DerdriuMarrinerMay 2, 2017
candy47May 2, 2017
DerdriuMarrinerMar 2, 2016
sandyspiderMar 1, 2016
DerdriuMarrinerSep 29, 2015
Me too, I agree that the mood, the pace, the performances -- especially Jeremy Irons -- and the psychologies -- particularly the mature reactions of Demi Moore's character as opposed to the freaking-out of the young bar-hopper -- are all top-notch. In terms of the business, I wonder if part of the vagueness stems from the fact that JC Chandor and his family have financial careers in their backgrounds and so he needed not to get too specific since exactness could identify a contact with whom the family socialize or a source for the film's information.
Did you hear the grave-digging sounds persisting after the film ends? It seems fitting since Kevin Spacey's character just wants to retire at this point and mourn his dog and since the business got away -- this time -- with breaking into the danger zone outside the safety net where books get balanced, losses get covered, and profits get made.
Please let me know what you think of the other two films.
MiraSep 29, 2015
I liked it. I didn't like the fact that they were so vague about their business, but they had the mood right (I think). Also the pace. And of course I liked the acting. I kept thinking how these actors played those people in a way that made you believe they were high-paid businessmen in a situation of crisis. I appreciated the fact that only the younger cadets freaked out, while someone like the character of Demi Moore, who showed much concern about her position, was in the end simply waiting for her severance package. Of all of them, I think I liked Jeremy Irons's acting the best.
DerdriuMarrinerJul 2, 2015
Triple Frontier should be quite a film, just based on the plot's setting in an area as troubled as that between Bolivia and Brazil. Another film to look for this year or next is The Lost City of Z -- produced by Brad Pitt -- about the Bolivian and Brazilian investigations conducted by Percy Fawcett before disappearing in the Amazon.
MiraJul 1, 2015
DerdriuMarrinerJul 1, 2015
MiraJun 30, 2015
MiraJun 29, 2015
DerdriuMarrinerJun 29, 2015
MiraJun 29, 2015
DerdriuMarrinerJun 29, 2015
Everybody does a great job, and it's impressive to see Simon Baker in a ruthless role (particularly evident in the way he prances into a bathroom to shave in the midst of more dismissals).
The group photo is a favorite of mine too! The Sundance connection is somewhat prescient since JC Chandor went on to make his second film with Robert Redford in the sole role. Robert Redford indicated afterward that JC Chandor is the only Sundance participant ever to do something in return for Robert's non-Sundance career.
MiraJun 28, 2015