Sunday, October 30, 2011

Movie Review: Margin Call 3.5 stars

Even if you don't care about the 2008 financial crisis you will be intrigued by this movie.  It has an outstanding cast that are perfect in their roles.  The standouts are Zachary Quinto (Spock in the last Star Trek movie) playing a rocket scientist working in an investment bank who discovers that the bank is bankrupt before the bank knows.  Kevin Space is terrific as head of the investment division having the make difficult moral choices.   Paul Bettany (Russel Crowe's imaginary friend in A Beautiful Mind) as the rocket scientist's boss and Jeremy Irons as the evil CEO.   If you skip this movie you will be missing some of the most powerful performances of the year.  The tension in this movie as the characters deal with their world crumbling around them is intense and allows the movie to seem 30 minutes long.  I wanted it to keep going so I can find out what happens to all the characters.  Every american should be required to watch these movies (best in this order) to understand why the economy is in such bad shape and who is responsible.
Capitalism:  A love Story:  Micheal Moore's very slanted view but he'll make understand the basics easy to take because he does it in such a humorous and painless way.
Inside Job :  This documentary will make you so angry you'll join the nearest 99 percent group.  Unlike Micheal Moore's slant on this subject, this is even handed in blaming everyone.  The most powerful part of the movie is the interview of economists who "missed" seeing the crisis.  They don't know when they start the interview that the interviewer knows exactly why they "missed" it.  Powerful stuff.
Too Big to Fail :  This one is a little slow but will also make you very very angry when you find out how the financial crisis unfolded, who did what, and what happened to all the bad guys (they made millions and are still in charge of the banks).

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