Margin Call

2011 Directed by J.C. Chandor

Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat.

A thriller that revolves around the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis.

Kevin Spacey Paul Bettany Jeremy Irons Zachary Quinto Ashley Williams Demi Moore Simon Baker Penn Badgley Mary McDonnell Stanley Tucci Aasif Mandvi Susan Blackwell Maria Dizzia Jimmy Palumbo Al Sapienza Peter Y. Kim Grace Gummer Oberon K.A. Adjepong

Alternative Titles

Marge de manoeuvre, El precio de la codicia, マージン・コール, Krízispont, 黑心交易員的告白, Межа ризику, El Precio de la Codicia

drama thriller

107 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by panos75 ★★★

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…
Review by Andy Summers ★★★★★ 1

Jeremy Irons has an Oscar. Kevin Spacey has two Oscars. J.C. Chandor will have one very soon if he continues to deliver anything as good as this and All Is Lost.
Review by Adam Cook ★★★ 7

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…
Review by Sam Van Hallgren ★★★★

Gotta give WOLF OF WALL STREET some credit - it gave me an appetite for entertainment about The Street and its denizens that was left mostly unsatisfied by Scorsese's film. I've been reading LIAR'S POKER - Michael Lewis's fantastic account of the rise and fall of Solomon Brothers in the late 80s. And then last night I finally caught up with the excellent MARGIN CALL. I guess one of my primary gripes with WOWS was my lack of interest in spending time with its characters and their antics, while also still being interested in the mechanics of their operation. MARGIN CALL is all mechanics. Thrillingly so. Maybe even more of a gut punch a couple years later, as the stock market recovers and we start to forget our rage at these gamblers as they start to line our purses again. As if anything has changed.
Review by Steve G 🐝 ★★★★ 3

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…
Review by jaywill ★★★½ 1

YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT’S *NOT* ELI ROTH?!??
I feel like this has probably already been observed by tons of people, but I just noticed Kevin Spacey’s typecasting is always the unempathetic dickhead traitor villain? Literally these are the only films I’ve seen with him and they all fit the bill; The Negotiator, 21, Seven, Iron Will, Baby Driver, Superman Returns, A Bug’s Life, another movie which I won’t spoil, and now Margin Call.

Lists:
Four Horsemen of Financial Cinema
Review by Matthew L. Brady ★★★ 2

This is one of those movies where everyone calls flawless but I think it's well done on a acting and directing point of view, but I do think it's a bit overrated in my opinion.
The story to Margin Call takes place in 2008 as a tense action as we follow one 24-hour period at an investment bank just before the financial crisis hits.
Margin Call is a movie that I thought was alright. I do think the movie is well acted and nicely written, but to me the movie is a slow burn and I just don't think it's brilliant as people thought it was. It's not a bad film but I don't think it's a great film, just alright in my opinion.
Review by Andy Summers ★★★★

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…
Review by Noel Penaflor ★★★½

Ensemble drama allows Oscar Winning actors to chew scenery...
Most of the movie is riveting as it covers the early stages of the '08 financial crisis.
Everyone gets at least one big scene. In retrospect you wonder what Kevin Spacey was saying to Penn Badgely off camera.
Now a period piece but no less intense. Don't make it a margin call if you want to see this.
See it for the acting, stay for the sexy financial terms like "Margin" or "call".
Review by Patrick Jensen ★★★★ 2

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…
Review by Todd Hill ★★★★ 1

The consensus is that “The Big Short” (2015) is the definitive movie about the Great Recession of 2008, and there’s probably no reason to refute that. But some consideration should be given to “Margin Call,” the debut of a filmmaker who’s been worth watching ever since, J.C. Chandor. A corporate drama, set in skyscrapers at night, about a bunch of Wall Street scumbags who have just realized their dangerous games are about to spill out into the economy at large, it features an all-star cast with Kevin Spacey — doing what he did best — at the center. We don’t for one minute understand what they’re so scared about, but it doesn’t matter; that’s good writing.
warm3wind.medium.com
Review by Chris ★★★★½ 2

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…

Recent reviews

Review by _Maverick_ ★★½

All great actors in a mediocre movie. Somehow both underrated and overrated.
Review by lewis cookson ★★★★

“You know, the feeling that people experience when they stand on the edge like this isn't the fear of falling - it's the fear that they might jump.”
Margin Call is an absolute gold mine when it comes to great lines, the script is superb and second to none. And beyond that, despite the tiny $2M budget they have the cast to deliver it - unfortunately, it is shadowed by Kevin Spacey, but he does put on a great show, as do the others such as Bettany, Irons and Quinto.
I imagine this has drawn a lot of comparisons to The Big Short, it’s flashier, more stylish cousin. Margin Call doesn’t have the big budget or A+ names on its cast list…
Review by Adam ★★★½

tight thriller about the financial crash (‘08)
quite difficult to explain what the mcguffin is in these types of films so fair play to the actors for selling it... slight issue of the film being centred around a thing theyre telling you is important if that makes sense lol
Review by Steven H ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

With an A list ensemble cast this is a glimpse of how corrupt or how ethical the banking and stock system is. Set in the high end world of the financial industry, Margin Call is a thriller entangling the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When highly intelligent entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Expanding the parameters of genre, Margin Call is a riveting examination of the human components of a subject too and the money players reactions to the situation have varying outcomes.
A very dialogue heavy movie but this only adds to the feeling of realism.
Review by Wade Ekstrom ★★½

Irons is the devil and it's the only essential part of this movie. The rest of it sentimentalizes these terrible men. Literally no one needs that.
Review by David Bruce ★★★½

These smart people sure are pieces of shit
Review by moviememoirs ★★★

Good acting, great idea behind the story (I always like to watch a film dealing with finance, or in this movie's case, the 2008 financial crisis), but the execution....ehhh.
I just wished that the screenplay wasn't so dull, that made me lose interest after a point, the interest which was high at the start of the film. It seemed like the film was dealing with something important, but everything felt dry overall.
Review by B ★★★★

Second time watching this in the past 6 months and let me say: time well spent. I'm a Chandor girl!
Review by Mop Head ★★★★

It's not 'The Wolf of Wall Street', it's the golden retriever of Wall Street and it's better than the Scorsese flick in my eyes.
Tightly focused on the problem at hand and it soars.
Review by gj336 ★★½

Similar topic matter to the later film The Big Short but not as entertaining unfortunately. A lot of the film merely gestured towards the idea of the 2008 financial crash but made sure to keep everything vague so as not to refer directly to any company.
Review by DarkOne4 ★★★

BBC ONE RECORDED
Review by tompunshon ★★★★

No idea how but I’d never heard of this one before. Bank in trouble at the start of the 2008 crisis, loads of stars, difficult decisions, life changing outcomes etc. I missed the start but must have seen most of it, some great performances and a difficult subject which most have been played out in so many situations. Think of it as the story of the people on the other side of the Big Short