''Margin Call'' is a 2011 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
written and directed by
J. C. Chandor in his feature directorial debut. The principal story takes place over a 24-hour period at a large
Wall Street investment bank
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
during the initial stages of the
financial crisis of 2007–2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
.
In focus are the actions taken by a group of employees during the subsequent financial collapse. The title comes from a finance term for when an investor must increase the securities or other assets used as collateral for a loan when their value falls below a certain threshold. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, obtaining supporting roles before gaining a leading man status in film and television. Spacey has received various accolade ...
, Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries '' WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominate ...
, Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor and activist. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969 and has appeared in many West End theatre ...
, Zachary Quinto
Zachary John Quinto (; born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles as Sylar, the primary antagonist from the science fiction drama series '' Heroes'' (2006–2010); Spock in the film ''Star Trek'' (2009) ...
, Penn Badgley
Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012) and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series '' You'' (2018 ...
, Simon Baker
Simon Lucas Baker (born 30 July 1969) is an Australian actor in television and film, as well as a director. He is known for his lead roles in the CBS television series ''The Mentalist'' as Patrick Jane and ''The Guardian'' as Nicholas Fallin ...
, Mary McDonnell
Mary Eileen McDonnell (born April 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in '' Dances with Wolves'' and May-Alice Culhane in ''Passion Fish''. Mc ...
, Demi Moore
Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...
, and Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...
.
The film was produced by the production companies Myriad Pictures
Myriad Pictures is an independent entertainment company in Santa Monica, California founded in 1999 and specializing in production, financing and worldwide distribution of feature films and television programming.
History
President and CEO Kir ...
, Benaroya Pictures
Michael Benaroya (born February 23, 1981) is an American film producer. He is chief executive officer at Benaroya Pictures.
Biography
Benaroya was born to a Jewish family on February 23, 1981 in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. His grandfather was Jac ...
and Before the Door Pictures (first to sign on, and owned by Zachary Quinto
Zachary John Quinto (; born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles as Sylar, the primary antagonist from the science fiction drama series '' Heroes'' (2006–2010); Spock in the film ''Star Trek'' (2009) ...
). Theatrically, it was commercially distributed by Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
and Roadside Attractions
Roadside Attractions is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, specializing largely in independent films. Lionsgate
Lions Gate ...
. The director and screenwriter, J. C. Chandor, is himself the son of an investment banker; the screenplay was partially informed by Chandor's own foray into real estate investments in New York City shortly before the financial crash. Preceding its theatrical release, ''Margin Call'' was met with positive critical reviews. Following its wide release in theaters, the film garnered award nominations from the Detroit Film Critics Society
The Detroit Film Critics Society is a film critic organization based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 2007, and comprises a group of over twenty film critics. To become a member, the critic must have reviewed at least twelve f ...
, along with several separate nominations for its screenplay and direction from recognized award organizations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The score was composed by musician Nathan Larson.
The film made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2011, and opened in theaters nationwide in the United States on October 21, 2011. Though it grossed just $5.4 million in domestic ticket sales from 199 theaters, the film had a ground-breaking day-and-date release that earned more than $10 million in video-on-demand sales. The DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
editions of the film were released in the United States on December 20, 2011.
Plot
In 2008, an unnamed investment bank
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
begins laying off a large number of employees. Among those affected is Eric Dale, head of risk management. Dale's attempts to speak about the implications of a model
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
he is working on are ignored. On his way out, he gives a flash drive containing his work to Peter Sullivan, an associate in his department, warning him to "be careful." Sullivan, intrigued, works after hours to complete Dale's model.
Sullivan discovers that the assumptions underpinning the firm's present risk profile are wrong; historical volatility levels in mortgage-backed securities
A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an 'instrument') which is secured by a mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals (a government agency or investment ba ...
are being exceeded, which means that the firm's position
Position often refers to:
* Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity
* Position, a job or occupation
Position may also refer to:
Games and recreation
* Position (poker), location relative to the dealer
* ...
in those assets is over-leveraged and the debt incurred from those over-leveraged assets will bankrupt the company. Sullivan calls his colleague, Seth Bregman, to return to work with the head of credit trading, Will Emerson. Emerson in turn summons Sam Rogers, his boss, after reviewing Sullivan's findings. Attempts by the four to contact Dale end unsuccessfully due to his company phone having been shut off. Peter and Seth go out to find Eric, while Sam and Will inform the company's senior management of the situation.
A subsequent meeting of division head Jared Cohen, chief risk management officer Sarah Robertson, and other senior executives concludes that Sullivan's findings are accurate, and firm CEO John Tuld is called. Upon Tuld's arrival, and after Sullivan explains the problem, Rogers, Cohen, and Tuld spar regarding a course of action. Cohen's plan, favored by Tuld, is a fire sale
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventor ...
of the problematic assets. Rogers disagrees, pointing out that the sale will damage the firm's relationships and reputation within the industry and will cause major instability in the markets. Tuld stresses that his desire to avoid the firm's bankruptcy is worth that risk and the cost.
After the meeting with Tuld, Emerson is informed by Dale's wife that he has returned home. Emerson travels to Dale's residence with Bregman and attempts to persuade him to return to the firm, but is unsuccessful. During the drive back, Bregman asks if he will lose his job; Emerson responds that he likely will, but, philosophizing on the nature of the financial markets, tells him not to lose faith, and that his work is necessary.
Tuld selects Robertson to act as the scapegoat for the firm's over-leveraged position and demands that she resign after the fire sale. Robertson argues that she warned Tuld and Cohen about the situation over a year ago, but fails to persuade him. Meanwhile, Eric Dale is bribed and forced into cooperating with Cohen's plan, with the firm threatening to cut his benefits and severance if he refuses. He spends the day commiserating with Robertson.
Despite his misgivings, Rogers rallies his traders and informs them of the fire sale. He acknowledges the damage likely to be done to their reputations and careers, but informs them that they will be well compensated if most of the traders' assigned assets are sold by day's end. As trading progresses, the firm elicits suspicion and eventually anger from their counterparties, and incurs heavy losses, but they are able to sell off most of the bad assets.
As another round of layoffs occurs, Rogers confronts Tuld and submits his resignation. Tuld dismisses Rogers' view of the situation by recalling past economic crises
A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...
, arguing that such events always happen and that Rogers should not feel guilty for acting in his and the firm's interests. Tuld asks Rogers to stay on for two more years and Rogers reluctantly accepts, citing personal financial needs. Tuld also informs Rogers that Sullivan is going to be promoted.
The film ends with Rogers burying his euthanized dog in his ex-wife's front yard during the night. She informs him that their son's firm also sustained heavy losses but avoided bankruptcy.
Cast
Production
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
began on June 21, 2010, in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. More than 80% of the action was shot on the 42nd floor of One Penn Plaza
Penn 1 (originally One Penn Plaza) is a skyscraper in New York City, located between 33rd Street and 34th Street, west of Seventh Avenue, and adjacent to Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. It is the tallest building in the Penn ...
, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm.
The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah
Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...
. The film also played In Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival
The 61st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 February 2011, with actress Isabella Rossellini as the President of the Jury. The Coen Brothers film ''True Grit'' opened the festival. 300,000 tickets were sold in total ...
and was nominated for the Golden Bear
The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.
History
The win ...
. The film was produced by Zachary Quinto's production company, Before the Door Pictures, by Quinto and his two producing partners and Carnegie Mellon University classmates, Neal Dodson
Neal Dodson (born May 17, 1978 in York, Pennsylvania, United States) is an Independent Spirit Award-winning film producer. His producer credits include the Academy Award-nominated ''Margin Call'', the Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Awards ...
and Corey Moosa.
Reception
Critical response
The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it has an approval rating of 87% based on 172 reviews, with an average rating of 7.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart, tightly wound, and solidly acted, ''Margin Call'' turns the convoluted financial meltdown of '08 into gripping, thought-provoking drama." On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' film critic David Denby
David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014.
Early life and education
Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...
said it was "easily the best Wall Street movie ever made". Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' gave the film three and half stars out of four, and said: "''Margin Call'' employs an excellent cast who can make financial talk into compelling dialogue." A. O. Scott of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote: "It is hard to believe that ''Margin Call'' is Mr. Chandor’s first feature. His formal command—his ability to imply far more than he shows or says and to orchestrate a large, complex drama out of whispers, glances, and snippets of jargon—is downright awe inspiring." In 2022, ''Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...
'' financial columnist '' Matt Levine (columnist)'' said that ''Margin Call'' was "the best finance movie".
Themes
Roger Ebert wrote: "I think the movie is about how its characters are concerned only by the welfare of their corporations. There is no larger sense of the public good. Corporations are amoral, and exist to survive and succeed, at whatever human cost. This is what the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...
protesters are angry about: They are not against capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
, but about Wall Street dishonesty and greed. ... he castreflects the enormity of what is happening: Their company and their lives are being rendered meaningless." A. O. Scott wrote: "''Margin Call'' is a thriller, moving through ambient shadows to the anxious tempo of Nathan Larson’s hushed, anxious score. It is also a horror movie
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...
, with disaster lurking like an unseen demon outside the skyscraper windows and behind the computer screens. It is also a workplace comedy Office humor, also often called workplace comedy, is humor within the workplace, in particular, office, environment. It is a subject that receives significant attention from students of industrial and organizational psychology and of the sociolog ...
of sorts. The crackling, syncopated dialogue and the plot, full of reversals and double crosses, owe an obvious debt to David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...
’s profane fables of deal-making machismo
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
. Hovering over all of it is the dark romance of capital: the elegance of numbers; the kinkiness of money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
; the deep, rotten, erotic allure of power."
Although the film does not depict any real Wall Street firm, and the fictional firm is never named, the plot has similarities to some events during the 2008 financial crisis: Goldman Sachs similarly moved early to hedge and reduce its position in mortgage-backed securities, at the urging of two employees, which essentially mirrors Tuld's comment about the advantage of moving first. Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
moved second and went bankrupt. John Tuld's name is said to be a combination of Merrill Lynch's ex-CEO John Thain
John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) is an American businessman, investment banker, and former chair and CEO of the CIT Group.
Thain was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. ...
and Lehman Brothers' ex-CEO Richard Fuld
Richard Severin Fuld Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banker best known as the final chairman and chief executive officer of investment bank Lehman Brothers. Fuld held this position from the firm's 1994 spinoff from American Express unti ...
.
Accolades
See also
* ''The Big Short'' (film)
* ''Inside Job
An insider threat is a malicious threat to an organization that comes from people within the organization, such as employees, former employees, contractors or business associates, who have inside information concerning the organization's security ...
'' (2010)
* ''The Hummingbird Project
''The Hummingbird Project'' is a 2018 thriller drama film about high-frequency trading and ultra-low latency direct market access, written and directed by Kim Nguyen produced by Pierre Even at Item 7. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skars ...
''
* Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis. After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal ...
* Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
* ''Too Big to Fail'' (film)
* The Wolf of Wall Street (2013 film)
''The Wolf of Wall Street'' is a 2013 American epic biographical black comedy crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on the 2007 memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort. It recounts Belfort's perspect ...
References
;Footnotes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Margin Call
2011 directorial debut films
2011 drama films
2011 films
2011 independent films
2011 thriller drama films
American independent films
American business films
American thriller drama films
Films about financial crises
Films directed by J. C. Chandor
Films set in 2008
Films set in New York City
Films set in the Great Recession
Films shot in New York City
Financial thrillers
Lionsgate films
Roadside Attractions films
Trading films
Wall Street films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films