Margin Call Reviews
We Got This Covered
In Margin Call, first time writer-director JC Chandor creates a humanizing insight into the lives of the bankers who discovered the fall of the economy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Maybe the financial collapse went down something like this...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Flick Filosopher
Wily humor and sly observations about the lives of these high rollers are the highlights... It's when those give way to issues of morality that the film disappoints, just a little...
The Skinny
At times, the film becomes just a series of static, over-determined conversations held in lofty offices and gleaming toilets.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
NECN
Margin Call can't beat the street, missing the mark in a major way given the massive expectations.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Uruguay Total
Es casi imposible identificarse con alguno de los personajes. Y el director y guionista lo sabe, por eso dota a su ópera prima de una tensión propia de un thriller, y de una mirada cínica y desencantada.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Flicks.co.nz
This is Chandor's triumph, and marks him out as someone to keep an eye on in the future.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
2UE That Movie Show
Margin Call's a tightly scripted, intensely acted, skillfully directed, character piece that illuminates the depths of moral and ethical corruption at the epicentre of western capitalist society.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Matt's Movie Reviews
Intelligently written and brilliantly portrayed, Margin Call delves into the belly of the beast where consequence is given no conscious and the line between good vs evil is blurred amongst a sea of numbers.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
sbs.com.au
Taut Wall Street drama takes an inside look at financial and human meltdown.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
ABC Radio Brisbane
With a script void of shouting matches and preachy monologues, J.C. Chandor makes the brave decision not to demonise these characters.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
Quickflix
[It] gives us villains that, rather than being sympathetic, are well-argued and reasonable. It gives us heroes that, whilst idealistic, make immoral choices for their own betterment. Margin Call is complex, fury-inspiring, and thoughtful.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Urban Cinefile
What makes it engaging is that the Oscar nominated screenplay explores the people who make the decisions from a moral point of view. And finds them wanting.
Urban Cinefile
It's a fascinating film that reveals much about its characters and provides food for thought for all of us who live in a capitalist society. Greed may be good for the avaricious but it's sure as hell ugly when it comes at any cost
The Sun Herald
Smart, sharp and dark, J C Chandor's ensemble drama - eliciting defined, defiant performances from an A-grade cast - summons the spirit of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Parallax View
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.
Laramie Movie Scope
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
The Ooh Tray
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.
Three Movie Buffs
Margin Call takes what could have been a complex and boring subject and serves it up as gripping entertainment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Birmingham Mail
With the employment market such as it is, it's remarkable how 'of its time' Margin Call feels.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
