"Margin Call" review
I saw the new Zachary Quinto picture (Margin Call) that depicts a 24 hour period with executives and a couple analysts at a New York investment firm who discover the inevitable 2008 financial crisis right before it hits, and I really liked it.
There isn't really anything to spoil, because it's not that kind of movie -- like with Titanic we all know how the story ends and that's not the point. The dramatic tension is seeing how this or that specific character will react to the situation.
I made sure not to even watch a single trailer. I'm familiar with the subject matter and I knew this would be one of those movies that's mostly just conversations, so I didn't want any moment given away to me -- I just wanted to watch the internal emotional tension build. [I just googled it and god, the trailer gives away the entirety. If you're going to watch the movie at all, definitely go into it "cold". WTF.]
Profoundly more watchable than HBO's Too Big To Fail, I found this to be a simple & straightforward yet vivid character-based piece. A film absolutely without action, and yet still compelling. While Too Big To Fail was hung up on explaining to the audience how this global catastrophe happened, Margin Call isn't trying to give you a history lesson. It's doing the reverse -- looking at the small, individual picture instead of the big one. What would it have felt like be an employee in one of those crucial investment banks and be on the cusp of the end?
What hooked me was that it treated the viewer like they're smart. It didn't preach to the viewer or dumb things down. And it let the characters breathe. The characters felt like real people and the acting was impeccable. (great cast: Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker...)
In the same way as The Social Network was compelling to me from a business perspective, I enjoyed Margin Call as a realistic depiction of corporate life when shit hits the fan. All the research they did paid off -- the movie feels authentic. And I think the character dynamics & the human responses to the situation will be recognizable for anyone who's been pulled into emergency strategy sessions at their company -- even though it never rose to such top levels or worldwide consequences.
Like The Social Network wasn't just about Facebook, this movie isn't about CDO trading. It's about the people who have to deal with the consequences after short-sighted decisions were made -- both the people who dug their own graves and the people who got caught in the undertow. I love the whole tone, which the film gets absolutely right. The vertigo, the fatalism, the pushing onward...
Sadly, unlike TSN I don't think the movie will get many viewers or any fanfic. (Though afterwards I was mentally pairing Quinto's character with Paul Bettany's character, just for the hell of it.)
FYI: This is a limited release, but if weird action-less business movies appeal to you... I've noticed that you can watch pay to watch via YouTube as Video-on-Demand (and probably elsewhere)
This entry was originally posted at http://silviakundera.dreamwidth.org/834365.html. There are
comments.
There isn't really anything to spoil, because it's not that kind of movie -- like with Titanic we all know how the story ends and that's not the point. The dramatic tension is seeing how this or that specific character will react to the situation.
I made sure not to even watch a single trailer. I'm familiar with the subject matter and I knew this would be one of those movies that's mostly just conversations, so I didn't want any moment given away to me -- I just wanted to watch the internal emotional tension build. [I just googled it and god, the trailer gives away the entirety. If you're going to watch the movie at all, definitely go into it "cold". WTF.]
Profoundly more watchable than HBO's Too Big To Fail, I found this to be a simple & straightforward yet vivid character-based piece. A film absolutely without action, and yet still compelling. While Too Big To Fail was hung up on explaining to the audience how this global catastrophe happened, Margin Call isn't trying to give you a history lesson. It's doing the reverse -- looking at the small, individual picture instead of the big one. What would it have felt like be an employee in one of those crucial investment banks and be on the cusp of the end?
What hooked me was that it treated the viewer like they're smart. It didn't preach to the viewer or dumb things down. And it let the characters breathe. The characters felt like real people and the acting was impeccable. (great cast: Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker...)
In the same way as The Social Network was compelling to me from a business perspective, I enjoyed Margin Call as a realistic depiction of corporate life when shit hits the fan. All the research they did paid off -- the movie feels authentic. And I think the character dynamics & the human responses to the situation will be recognizable for anyone who's been pulled into emergency strategy sessions at their company -- even though it never rose to such top levels or worldwide consequences.
Like The Social Network wasn't just about Facebook, this movie isn't about CDO trading. It's about the people who have to deal with the consequences after short-sighted decisions were made -- both the people who dug their own graves and the people who got caught in the undertow. I love the whole tone, which the film gets absolutely right. The vertigo, the fatalism, the pushing onward...
Sadly, unlike TSN I don't think the movie will get many viewers or any fanfic. (Though afterwards I was mentally pairing Quinto's character with Paul Bettany's character, just for the hell of it.)
FYI: This is a limited release, but if weird action-less business movies appeal to you... I've noticed that you can watch pay to watch via YouTube as Video-on-Demand (and probably elsewhere)
This entry was originally posted at http://silviakundera.dreamwidth.org/834365.html. There are
comments.