Margin Call (2011)

All Critics (138) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (122) | Rotten (16) | DVD (4)

Carefully crafted performances and taut pacing carry the day.

November 29, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Laremy Legel

Film.com

Top Critic

Topical drama about the financial crisis lacks the visceral punch to grab an audience.

November 11, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Stephen Farber

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

A methodical, coolly absorbing boardroom thriller.

November 11, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Justin Chang

Variety

Top Critic

Spacey is mesmerizing as Sam, a weary, aging lion losing his appetite for antelope. And Irons plays the villain with magisterial ease.

November 11, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Stephen Cole

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

It's a realistic take on what happens when high-flying money speculators suddenly hit ground. It's also a great calling card for J.C. Chandor, the writer/director making his feature debut.

November 11, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

That Chandor manages to find the blood in each character is accomplishment enough; that he manages to make his drama both relevant and timeless portends a bright future indeed.

October 28, 2011 Full Review | Comment

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

Chandor underplays the human drama and the anonymity of the Wall Street office building so much it risks slipping into doldrums, but the stakes are too great and the actors too sharp to let that happen.

February 19, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Sean Axmaker

Parallax View

Strong acting props up this emotionless process film. It is like something David Mamet would make, slick and clever, but lacking in real feeling or drama.

February 2, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

A commendably sober and even handed drama, that gives the much loathed bankers human faces (tethered to animal metaphors, notably fat cats and dead dogs), while noting the culture of profligacy and flippancy within which they operate.

January 31, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Ed Whitfield

The Ooh Tray

Margin Call takes what could have been a complex and boring subject and serves it up as gripping entertainment.

January 26, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

With the employment market such as it is, it's remarkable how 'of its time' Margin Call feels.

January 15, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Graham Young

Birmingham Mail

It's a smart, entertaining film, and an impressive debut from the director.

January 13, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Sarah Cronin

Electric Sheep

Greed isn't merely good here, it's God; and He's about to smite His acolytes with blazing Old Testament relish.

January 13, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Robbie Collin

Daily Telegraph

A solid and serviceable financial thriller, shot in the washed out palate of currently trendy Scandinavian film and TV and with echoes of All The President's Men.

January 13, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Liverpool Echo

This is thriller, horror story and human drama in one.

January 13, 2012 Full Review | Comment

This is London

It feels a little stagey, but this is the film Wall Street 2 should have been.

January 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment

David Edwards

Daily Mirror [UK]

A shrewd and confident drama.

January 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

It has intelligence and dry wit, but also a sly wink of designer trashiness.

January 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Nigel Andrews

Financial Times

The claustrophobic, VDU-illuminated isolationism of the financial services industry is cleverly implied, as the central disaster is humanised by individual ones...

January 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Andrew Collins

Radio Times

Fine acting and sense of purpose, if occasionally a little too equivocal.

January 12, 2012 Full Review | Comment

David Jenkins

Little White Lies

Like The Social Network it grippingly dramatizes a dry, seemingly impenetrable subject that has huge implications for the way we live.

January 11, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Henry Fitzherbert

Daily Express

Margin Call is a compelling human drama that isn't just about numbers.

January 11, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Roz Laws

Birmingham Post

It's a slick, well-made film about a catastrophic set of events that were catastrophic to everybody but those who actually caused them.

January 11, 2012 Full Review | Comment

Tim Evans

Sky Movies

• 1. John Tuld: So you think we might have put a few people out of business today. That its all for naught. You've been doing that everyday for almost forty years Sam. And if this is all for naught then so is everything out there. Its just money; its made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don't have to kill each other just to get something to eat. It's not wrong. And it's certainly no different today than its ever been. 1637, 1797, 1819, 37, 57, 84, 1901, 07, 29, 1937, 1974, 1987-Jesus, didn't that fuck up me up good-92, 97, 2000 and whatever we want to call this. It's all just the same thing over and over; we can't help ourselves. And you and I can't control it, or stop it, or even slow it. Or even ever-so-slightly alter it. We just react. And we make a lot money if we get it right. And we get left by the side of the side of the road if we get it wrong. And there have always been and there always will be the same percentage of winners and losers. Happy foxes and sad sacks. Fat cats and starving dogs in this world. Yeah, there may be more of us today than there's ever been. But the percentages-they stay exactly the same.
  – Submitted by Liak Y (2 months ago)
• 1. Will Emerson: [to Seth] If you really want to do this with your life you have to believe that you're necessary, and you are. People want to live like this with their cars and their big fucking houses they can't even pay for - then you're necessary. The only reason people get to continue living like kings is because we've got our fingers on the scales and we're tipping in their favor. I take my hand off, well then the whole world gets really fucking fair really fucking quick and nobody actually wants that. They say they do, but they really don't. They want what we have to give but they also want to play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it actually came from; and that's more hypocrisy than I'm willing to swallow, so fuck 'em.
  – Submitted by Louise D (2 months ago)
• 1. Peter Sullivan: These people have no idea on what's about to happen.
  – Submitted by Roddy P (3 months ago)
• 1. John Tuld: There are three ways to make a living in this business. Be first, be smarter, or cheat.
  – Submitted by Chris P (4 months ago)
• 1. Sam Rogers: Your selling something that you know has no value.
  – Submitted by Chris P (4 months ago)