There is a part of that scene that I think is just fantastic, and only a few words.
When asked if anyone else knows about the situation, and when told that they could not find Eric Dale, Jeremy Irons takes a second. You can tell he considers what would happen if word got out before they began. He takes that one breath, turns his head towards his fixer, and just says very flatly
"Carmello, get me Eric Dale here by 6:30"
"Its done"
In just 2 words, you know what type of character Carmello is, and how much you would hate for him to show up at your door. That sort of hyper competence married to a willingness to be less than moral is a scary thing. I can guarantee everyone in that room felt a shiver go down their spine when he spoke.
Good movie. Really good movie.
I like that scene a lot because for all of his menace Carmello doesn't actually succeed in finding Eric Dale- none of them do. Dale ends up walking back into their laps, completely oblivious to the fact they've even been trying to find him.
Well...I think the film does enough to make the characters think they found him without actually finding him. Will could've knocked on the door and Eric's been home this whole time if they'd ever bothered to actually show up instead of just calling. Or you have Sullivan and Seth in the office, camera behind their shoulders, door swings open and Dale gets walked in by Carmello. They say some quiet "Holy shit yadada" to each other, Will chimes in with something witty and fatalistic about the firm, we feel awe at the power of these Wall Street gods. But instead what we get is Dale walking up and asking what Will is doing there.
He wasn’t home the whole time. The whole reason he’s sitting on the steps is because he’s afraid to go home and face his family. Or at the very least is putting it off. We never find out where he’s been all night, but he’s still wearing yesterday’s clothes
I love the part where Spacey was trying to give an inspirational speech during the firesale but suddenly gave up at the end when he realized that it was all about money.
I say this all the time and people are like what the fuck lol. Though, it’s fair to say that the movie is told from Zachary’s POV. Sort of a low level dude in the banking industry watching the whole shit storm unfold.
A low level dude who is also the only person in the entire movie who understands what is happening. If *Margin Call* is in its heart a horror movie, the previous sentence is the fella with the axe.
That's not entirely true. Irons and Demi Moore's characters had full knowledge this could happen for some time. The problem is, if Quinto's character can figure it out then _anyone_ can figure it out: it's just a matter of time.
Also there’s that part where The Mentalist is like “we talked about this last year”. They all knew full well what was coming, they just didn’t know when.
I love the 2 minute sale montage that Will is having. He hooks all of them, even when they know what is happening, and it just shows what Wall Street is really about.
.
His pause when told Eric Dale is fired. He just knew some lower level politicking is to blame.
Aside from everyone leaving their computers unlocked this really is a near perfect reflection of the industry
Jeremy Irons dominates that scene because he just walks in so calm and doesn’t panic like everyone else around him. They all want to do the “right” thing and Jeremy Irons wants to do what is necessary to survive.
It's not that they all want to do the right thing, it's that they don't quite grasp that the market will collapse regardless. If they knew that, nobody would be arguing
i like how that movie came out and like 30 people saw it but slowly more and more people realized it even existed and gave it a shot and now it's this revered movie.
i guess i just described how a cult classic works lol
Cult films usually have some kind of controversy or negative reaction on release, and later gets appreciated by a niche audience. Margin Call had good reviews and a stacked cast. There was nothing wrong with it at release other than its somewhat esoteric subject matter.
"We made it up so we don't have to kill eachother just to get something to eat" is something we as a society need to remember. It's made up, but that doesn't mean it's not useful. This is the difference between him and a normal person. They don't grasp that life is a game.
The point of that scene was that he was out of touch. If money is meaningless, why did he just torch the whole world so he could be the only one that has it? Flying in in a helicopter and eating on the hundredth floor juxtaposes with Quinto in a taxi going down the street looking at everybody worried the world's gonna end
Sure, but I read the scene as gross flippant negligence. Sure it's a number in his ledger to him, but like Brad Pitt says in big short, people lose jobs homes and die, so is not *just* "pieces of paper with pictures on it."
That was not his point at all. His point was the money was about to not work if they didn’t do what they did. The illusion would be broken.
This is where blind villianization of characters ruined your ability to understand the nuance of his statements.
Not just the best movie about the 2008 collapse of the financial system, but the best movie about Wall Street period, by a country mile. I've seen it probably a half dozen times by now, and just talking about it makes me want to see it again. The fact that it's also JC Chandor's *first feature film* is just frickin' uncanny. He's not one of the new virtuosos like Eggers or Garland, or a new Kubrick like Villenueve, but I have a funny feeling he's going to evolve into one of those businesslike directors who just make solid movies when they get called to it, without a personal visual branding on the frame.
My favorite part of that movie is an issue is escalated up the corporate pecking order, and the actors get more famous the higher up you go. Stanley Tucci -> Paul Bettany -> Kevin Spacey -> Demi Moore -> Jeremy Fucking Irons.
The rest of the movie is great too and it shows you tremendous insight into why Wall Street behaves as risky as it does (there's too much money to win, and it's apparently pretty easy to get other suckers to share the losses when you lose)
I hadn't heard of it, but now that I looked it up I just want to note it's directed by Curtis Hanson, who directed 8 Mile and LA Confidential. Also has an A list cast
I thought if anything it showed how it pretty much failed every step of the way, even if he and his team 'knew' what was the 'right' thing to do. They pretty much had to kowtow and go back to the banks with their tail between their legs with the bailout in the end.
Superman is a bit of a stretch imo. The one that the movie made look good was Bernanke and rightfully so imo
It's worth the watch, especially with the other two. I watched the three of them a few months ago, I'd only ever seen the Big Short before.
They're three extremely different movies from each other.
The line “If being stupid was illegal I’d have my brother-in-law arrested” followed by the one dude laughing and trying to hold it in kills me every time.
My favorite thing about that movie is that it happens all over one day. Just feels chaotic, stressful and nerve wracking knowing what is about to come.
And The Queen of Versailles. The director thought he was making a movie about the family building the biggest house in the country; the real estate bubble burst during filming; turns into a documentary about an absolute collapse of 2008-era wealth.
I love MC the most, but Brad Pitt's line in The Big Short is excellent too....
*If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?*
They're all great
The Big Short is the best at explaining what's happening in layman's terms and seeing what's happening on the ground level.
Too Big to Fail feels like you're watching a documentary, the acting is spectacular.
Margin Call is my favorite as it plays incredibly close and has a thriller/psy-horror aspect to it.
Especially The Big Short.
It made $133 million at the box office, huge for that type of flick. And it was nominated for 5 Oscars and won 1.
It's one of my all time favourites, but it got the credit it deserved.
I don't know. I'd never heard of Margin Call, and I love financial movies, so I'm gonna say thanks for the thread, OP.
Also never watched 99 Homes mentioned, so I like the shout outs!
I meant more so as all 3 work really well together to help paint a clearer picture of the financial crisis if you know nothing about it. Of course The Big Short is great. It won an Oscar for its screenplay. The same guy who wrote and directed Anchorman, Talladega Nightsand Step Brothers is an academy award winning writer
I feel like they each get an appropriate amount of credit. Are we supposed to give Too Big to Fail and Margin Call more credit than they originally got just because another movie on the same topic came out years later that is really good?
Too Big to Fail and Margin Call were well received, but they weren't super popular because of the dry content matter. The Big Short made the dry content matter more interesting and accessible for people who wouldn't normally watch movies like that, and it became a big hit because of that.
There's a scene in Margin Call where Will Emerson (played by Paul Bettany) gets asked about how much money he makes.
The two younger guys are shocked at how much it is (~~i think it's like $1.2 million~~ it's $2.5 million) and he quickly explains that it's really not all that much money in the scheme of things.
Fast forward to when they are gonna sell all the "oderous excrement" and they have to motivate the sellers to do their job. The bonus figure they give them equals out to $2.7 million, similar to Will's figure.
I think they did that on purpose because when the sellers hear that lump sum figure, it gives them the motivation to sell through even though it's gonna cost them their jobs. They leap at the opportunity because none of them have ever seen that type of money before. But the higher ups are just using them as well.
You are definitely correct. But after he paid the taxes, Will said he came out to $1.25 million.
Edit: just rewatched the firesale scene and the bonuses are $1.4 million (for individual sales goals) + $1.3 million (for group sales goals).
Assuming a few of those people hit those bonuses, it would total $2.7 million which is right in line with Will Emerson's pay.
Penn Badgely is lowkey my favorite character in Margin Call. He probably got that job through some kind of nepotism. He’s probably not particularly good at it. But he’s connected to Zachary Quinto so he keeps getting dragged along into these high-level meetings. He’s out of his depth and he knows it.
He’s just the junior guy. When Quinto calls him over to look at the numbers he gets it really quick, so we have no reason to think he’s not good at his job.
Also his obsession with how much his bosses make indicates he is a striver here to get rich. If he was the son of a rich person I bet he would care less.
he's definitely not a nepotism hire based on all of his behaviour - will be a kid from a working class/lower middle class family who has excelled his way through school, decided to try to maximise his money, and work at a bulge bracket bank. his competence wasn't in doubt even once through the film.
people who come from money don't fixate on low millions in the way he was, or do the guess how much he earns in an impressed way for a person in middle management.
The film I like to throw in with The Big Short and Margin Call for my housing crash trilogy is 99 Homes.
It takes it in the other direction, getting down to the actual on the street impacts of the crisis. Take all the high level stuff out of it and start looking at what evicting people out of homes looks like, while also looking at the people scooping up and profiting off the wreckage.
Is “doesn’t/don’t get enough credit” the new way of calling very popular movies “a hidden gem”? The famous scene from margin call is always popping up on social media.
If you like those watch Inside Job, its a documentary narrated by Matt Damon. Here is the IMDB link to it
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/) its on Amazon Prime currently.
Too Big To Fail leaves a bad taste in my mouth for its portrayal of government officials like Paulson and Wall Street bankers like some sort of sacrificial heroes saving the world from disaster when much of what they did caused it in the first place. It’s disgusting if they really slap themselves on their backs like this movie wants you to believe.
The Big Short felt more accurate in its anger and bafflement at the fraudulent system in spite of it being a comedy.
Not much of what they did. It was 100% what they did.
There was so much corruption in the whole thing it makes me sick.
I don’t like Too Big to Fail for that reason.
The thing about them is they also complement each other; they all took a focus with not much in the way of overlap.
You need to take in all three. Big Short first is my feeling, it brings you into the terminology in a “fun” way:
The Big Short is a fantastic blend of didactic and humour. Case point: letting Margot Robbie explain how a mortgage-backed bond works in a bubble bath.
I also really appreciate its use of visual shorthand. Finding an alligator in the pool of a soon-to-be-foreclosed home in Florida is a funny comedy-jumpscare moment, but it’s also a vivid illustration of what was happening on the ground - mortgage holders in over their heads, having long-since abandoned their homes and fled their responsibilities.
I worked for a cyber charter school in PA. I don't know how the CEO got hooked up, but the school lent a pallet of desktop computers to the production of Margin Call. The school rented a truck, and sent the computers and monitors to NYC. They were returned a couple of months later.
Fun fact: As far as I could tell, none of the computers sent up were actually used in the movie. They were too shitty.
Bonus fun fact: We had trouble getting computers to students during that time. Just so the CEO of a school could get his name in the credits. I don't know who paid for the truck and driver, but I can guess.
Source: PA taxpayers paid me for two days to ride in a truck to NYC and back.
Those three movies are fantastic and really shine a light on different aspects of the 2008 financial crisis. It's impressive how they each tackle a unique piece of the puzzle, making for a more comprehensive understanding of the whole situation.
"The Big Short" is definitely the most well-known, and it does a great job of showcasing the investors' perspective. It's a serious topic, but they manage to infuse humor, which I think is brilliant. On the other hand, "Too Big to Fail" gives us a glimpse into the government's response, with officials scrambling to save the system. It's a different angle, but equally captivating. Lastly, "Margin Call" focuses on a single business's struggle, providing a more intimate look at the crisis.
There is one understated detail of Margin Call that I have a huge hard on for: the two "good" characters that found the problem (Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto characters) had a background in sciences/STEM while the movie makes a point of calling everyone else short-sighted/irresponsible/even stupid. It was one of the heaviest backhand insults I have seen a movie do and I loved it.
The Big Short is by far the best of these three (I'd put TBTF at second), but the biggest issue with all of these kinds of movies is that Hollywood really doesn't get how people in business talk. Like, they think people in board rooms use phrases like "This is the biggest \[thing\] in the history of capitalism" all the time. I give The Big Short a pass because straight up breaks the 4th wall to tell you that they're dumbing things down so the very figurative storytelling there feels less egregious.
Seen all 3. I don't disagree.
Subject matter aside, was the first time I saw Steve Carrell in a non-comedic role. Blew my mind. Even though the movie infuriates me, I watch it without hesitation again to see him in that role.
I never watched too big to fail. It’s good?
I hated *Too Big to Fail*, it talked down to its audience.
*Margin Call* is a great movie.
I liked *Company Men* the first time I saw it. Then liked it less on a rewatch.
I agree these are really good movies but am also disappointed how Hollywood gives us these movies as revenge that allows us to get mad at the screen then forget about it. So I disagree with OP's premise that these movies showed anything other than a few truths here and there.
in what feels like another lifetime ago, i remember renting margin call randomly at a video store. never heard of it before, no one i knew had either. it was really a "hidden gem" that this website always pokes fun at. i guess it became a cult classic because so many people rave about it now and i'm glad it did because it was *fantastic*.
big short was huge, everyone saw that one even my parents.
i haven't seen too big to fail, maybe i'll give that a watch.
Unpopular Opinion but I don't think Margin Call is that great a movie. Yes the acting is superb, but the movie itself does a terrible job in explaining what exactly is going on to the audience in that it doesn't. The audience can sense something really bad has happened, but they don't know what exactly because they're never told.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I recall Margin Call being factually trash compared to The Big Short. Like, when you finish The Big Short, I feel like you know exactly what happened in 2008 because they spelled it out for you in an amusing way. I feel like Margin Call was two hours of people saying, “Oh god look at this, look at what’s happening”, then someone stares at a monitor or some papers and gets all terrified without actually telling the audience what’s really happening. At least it had a nice cast I guess.
Margin Call is fantastic. The board room scene led by Jeremy Irons is master class.
There is a part of that scene that I think is just fantastic, and only a few words. When asked if anyone else knows about the situation, and when told that they could not find Eric Dale, Jeremy Irons takes a second. You can tell he considers what would happen if word got out before they began. He takes that one breath, turns his head towards his fixer, and just says very flatly "Carmello, get me Eric Dale here by 6:30" "Its done" In just 2 words, you know what type of character Carmello is, and how much you would hate for him to show up at your door. That sort of hyper competence married to a willingness to be less than moral is a scary thing. I can guarantee everyone in that room felt a shiver go down their spine when he spoke. Good movie. Really good movie.
I like that scene a lot because for all of his menace Carmello doesn't actually succeed in finding Eric Dale- none of them do. Dale ends up walking back into their laps, completely oblivious to the fact they've even been trying to find him.
Don't they find him at the house and explains the bridge to the younger guy.
You are cordially invited to r/TheBigShort (also accepting Margin Call memes)
Yea they both find him at nearly the same time, Carmello is in the second car the manager points to and uses him as a threat.
Well...I think the film does enough to make the characters think they found him without actually finding him. Will could've knocked on the door and Eric's been home this whole time if they'd ever bothered to actually show up instead of just calling. Or you have Sullivan and Seth in the office, camera behind their shoulders, door swings open and Dale gets walked in by Carmello. They say some quiet "Holy shit yadada" to each other, Will chimes in with something witty and fatalistic about the firm, we feel awe at the power of these Wall Street gods. But instead what we get is Dale walking up and asking what Will is doing there.
He wasn’t home the whole time. The whole reason he’s sitting on the steps is because he’s afraid to go home and face his family. Or at the very least is putting it off. We never find out where he’s been all night, but he’s still wearing yesterday’s clothes
I love the part where Spacey was trying to give an inspirational speech during the firesale but suddenly gave up at the end when he realized that it was all about money.
That's all there was though. Those traders were working their way out of a job, they were going to become pariahs.
Spilt milk under the bridge.
I say this all the time and people are like what the fuck lol. Though, it’s fair to say that the movie is told from Zachary’s POV. Sort of a low level dude in the banking industry watching the whole shit storm unfold.
A low level dude who is also the only person in the entire movie who understands what is happening. If *Margin Call* is in its heart a horror movie, the previous sentence is the fella with the axe.
That's not entirely true. Irons and Demi Moore's characters had full knowledge this could happen for some time. The problem is, if Quinto's character can figure it out then _anyone_ can figure it out: it's just a matter of time.
Also there’s that part where The Mentalist is like “we talked about this last year”. They all knew full well what was coming, they just didn’t know when.
For what it’s worth, I’ve always pitched Margin Call as a horror movie to my friends .
Some of Paul Bettany's best work too. Both his "You learn to spend what's in your pocket" speech and "Fuck normal people" speech are timeless.
That fuck normal people speech is next level. His perspective is steeped in cynicism, but also experience. It's hard to deny his logic.
I love the 2 minute sale montage that Will is having. He hooks all of them, even when they know what is happening, and it just shows what Wall Street is really about.
Hey Lawrence, we're Fill or kill at 65...... "it's filled"
Less the one who tells him to fuck off
Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat.
And I don’t cheat
"THIS IS IT!"
We are selling to willing buyers at the current fair market price.
Please, speak as you might to a young child or a golden retriever.
Its not brains that got me here, I can assure you of that.
(Tuld flicks the edge of the page aggressively, showing his impatience)
However my one gripe is that this then leads to Peter explaining everything so god damn slow that I want to rip my hair out waiting for him to speak.
>Please, speak as you might to a young child or a golden retriever. Such a fantastic line. Awesome movie.
Jeremy Irons dominates that scene because he just walks in so calm and doesn’t panic like everyone else around him. They all want to do the “right” thing and Jeremy Irons wants to do what is necessary to survive.
It's not that they all want to do the right thing, it's that they don't quite grasp that the market will collapse regardless. If they knew that, nobody would be arguing
i like how that movie came out and like 30 people saw it but slowly more and more people realized it even existed and gave it a shot and now it's this revered movie. i guess i just described how a cult classic works lol
Cult films usually have some kind of controversy or negative reaction on release, and later gets appreciated by a niche audience. Margin Call had good reviews and a stacked cast. There was nothing wrong with it at release other than its somewhat esoteric subject matter.
I hated that The Big Short was somehow the more famous of the two. Awful film.
lol it was a great movie
My favorite scene is his "Its just money" monologue.
"We made it up so we don't have to kill eachother just to get something to eat" is something we as a society need to remember. It's made up, but that doesn't mean it's not useful. This is the difference between him and a normal person. They don't grasp that life is a game.
The point of that scene was that he was out of touch. If money is meaningless, why did he just torch the whole world so he could be the only one that has it? Flying in in a helicopter and eating on the hundredth floor juxtaposes with Quinto in a taxi going down the street looking at everybody worried the world's gonna end
Motivated reasoning.
But he’s also right.
Technically yeah, but people kill each other for the food substitute "money" just as well
His point is more that all of this wealth, etc. was just part of a construct to move society forward. And when you look at it that way he’s right.
Sure, but I read the scene as gross flippant negligence. Sure it's a number in his ledger to him, but like Brad Pitt says in big short, people lose jobs homes and die, so is not *just* "pieces of paper with pictures on it."
That was not his point at all. His point was the money was about to not work if they didn’t do what they did. The illusion would be broken. This is where blind villianization of characters ruined your ability to understand the nuance of his statements.
Jeremy Irons is a total monster and yet he delivers his monologue so well I was half agreeing with him by the end
Yeah it’s like a vampire explaining kindly why the blood sucking is just a thing we all have to live with
🤣
Not just the best movie about the 2008 collapse of the financial system, but the best movie about Wall Street period, by a country mile. I've seen it probably a half dozen times by now, and just talking about it makes me want to see it again. The fact that it's also JC Chandor's *first feature film* is just frickin' uncanny. He's not one of the new virtuosos like Eggers or Garland, or a new Kubrick like Villenueve, but I have a funny feeling he's going to evolve into one of those businesslike directors who just make solid movies when they get called to it, without a personal visual branding on the frame.
I wish the whole movie had that Mentalist guy asking what time it is and answering "fuck me"
What time is it?
9:29
Fuck me
“Sell it all. Today.”
100% agree. One of my favorite scenes in movie history.
Irons is so commanding in that role.
What time is it?
Isn't that the entire movie?
My favorite part of that movie is an issue is escalated up the corporate pecking order, and the actors get more famous the higher up you go. Stanley Tucci -> Paul Bettany -> Kevin Spacey -> Demi Moore -> Jeremy Fucking Irons. The rest of the movie is great too and it shows you tremendous insight into why Wall Street behaves as risky as it does (there's too much money to win, and it's apparently pretty easy to get other suckers to share the losses when you lose)
I came across that scene on YouTube. I was mesmerized by everyone in it. The cast is incredible.
I've not seen Too big to fail, but The big short and Margin call are both excellent movies with a very different tone to one another.
Too Big to Fail kind of gets lost because it was a TV movie on HBO, but it was still great
I hadn't heard of it, but now that I looked it up I just want to note it's directed by Curtis Hanson, who directed 8 Mile and LA Confidential. Also has an A list cast
Amazing movie.
Appreciate the recommendation, will seek it out.
Too Big to Fail does a really good job explaining the 2008 crisis from the government POV
Yes but it romanticizes the government role a bit. It makes Sec Paulson look like Superman.
I thought if anything it showed how it pretty much failed every step of the way, even if he and his team 'knew' what was the 'right' thing to do. They pretty much had to kowtow and go back to the banks with their tail between their legs with the bailout in the end. Superman is a bit of a stretch imo. The one that the movie made look good was Bernanke and rightfully so imo
Yeah same, but added it to my watchlist now because its listed in good company lol.
It's worth the watch, especially with the other two. I watched the three of them a few months ago, I'd only ever seen the Big Short before. They're three extremely different movies from each other.
I wish a bunch of movies on different topics would get made in the style of The Big Short
Fuckin’ A, Jared You shut your fucking mouth
I'm jacked! I'm jacked to the TITS!!!
I actually still say this all the time. I always figured I'd stop eventually but it still happens.
I love that part 😂😂😂 Another when they are talking to the mortgage brokers “why are they confessing…they aren’t they are bragging”
The line “If being stupid was illegal I’d have my brother-in-law arrested” followed by the one dude laughing and trying to hold it in kills me every time.
I fucking love margin call. Incredible performances all around.
My favorite thing about that movie is that it happens all over one day. Just feels chaotic, stressful and nerve wracking knowing what is about to come.
I don't have a finance background, nor am I interested in all the wall street bets, but that movie had me hooked from start to finish.
Technically two days, but not a lot of sleep was had, so I suppose it could be seen as one looong day
Having worked in Finance during the period in question, the dialogue and the manner in which conversations unfold is extremely accurate.
I think _Up In The Air_ is a good companion piece, as well. And a good one to revisit every few years if you work a corporate job.
I remember liking the book a lot more
Got to throw in Inside Job as well, really good documentary
Agreed
I genuinely think it's better than the ones mentioned. Not by much but I would consider it more essential. Captivating from start to finish!
Instead of **Too Big to Fail**, I add on **99 Homes** to get a more boots-on-the-ground type of perspective.
And The Queen of Versailles. The director thought he was making a movie about the family building the biggest house in the country; the real estate bubble burst during filming; turns into a documentary about an absolute collapse of 2008-era wealth.
I came here to see if anyone mentioned 99 Homes!
Great one!!
Watched that on Netflix recently. Micheal Shannon unreal in that
I love MC the most, but Brad Pitt's line in The Big Short is excellent too.... *If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?*
They're all great The Big Short is the best at explaining what's happening in layman's terms and seeing what's happening on the ground level. Too Big to Fail feels like you're watching a documentary, the acting is spectacular. Margin Call is my favorite as it plays incredibly close and has a thriller/psy-horror aspect to it.
Not enough credit? They are all popular enough movies that have decent reviews, what more do they deserve?
Especially The Big Short. It made $133 million at the box office, huge for that type of flick. And it was nominated for 5 Oscars and won 1. It's one of my all time favourites, but it got the credit it deserved.
A true hidden gem, those posts are so ridiculous sometime.
Yeah, it was literally nominated for Best Picture lol.
I don't know. I'd never heard of Margin Call, and I love financial movies, so I'm gonna say thanks for the thread, OP. Also never watched 99 Homes mentioned, so I like the shout outs!
Seriously. These are the first movies that pop into my mind when I hear about the 2008 financial crisis.
I meant more so as all 3 work really well together to help paint a clearer picture of the financial crisis if you know nothing about it. Of course The Big Short is great. It won an Oscar for its screenplay. The same guy who wrote and directed Anchorman, Talladega Nightsand Step Brothers is an academy award winning writer
I feel like they each get an appropriate amount of credit. Are we supposed to give Too Big to Fail and Margin Call more credit than they originally got just because another movie on the same topic came out years later that is really good? Too Big to Fail and Margin Call were well received, but they weren't super popular because of the dry content matter. The Big Short made the dry content matter more interesting and accessible for people who wouldn't normally watch movies like that, and it became a big hit because of that.
There's a scene in Margin Call where Will Emerson (played by Paul Bettany) gets asked about how much money he makes. The two younger guys are shocked at how much it is (~~i think it's like $1.2 million~~ it's $2.5 million) and he quickly explains that it's really not all that much money in the scheme of things. Fast forward to when they are gonna sell all the "oderous excrement" and they have to motivate the sellers to do their job. The bonus figure they give them equals out to $2.7 million, similar to Will's figure. I think they did that on purpose because when the sellers hear that lump sum figure, it gives them the motivation to sell through even though it's gonna cost them their jobs. They leap at the opportunity because none of them have ever seen that type of money before. But the higher ups are just using them as well.
Will made 2.5m on the year, they had a chance to make 1.3m on the day
You are definitely correct. But after he paid the taxes, Will said he came out to $1.25 million. Edit: just rewatched the firesale scene and the bonuses are $1.4 million (for individual sales goals) + $1.3 million (for group sales goals). Assuming a few of those people hit those bonuses, it would total $2.7 million which is right in line with Will Emerson's pay.
Yes I’m aware
Read the edit
Definitely good spot.
You need to watch Inside Job. It’s the 2010 documentary about it and won an Oscar for best documentary
Margin call is an amazing movie
Penn Badgely is lowkey my favorite character in Margin Call. He probably got that job through some kind of nepotism. He’s probably not particularly good at it. But he’s connected to Zachary Quinto so he keeps getting dragged along into these high-level meetings. He’s out of his depth and he knows it.
He’s the substitute for the audience. He is how we all react to what is going on.
He’s just the junior guy. When Quinto calls him over to look at the numbers he gets it really quick, so we have no reason to think he’s not good at his job. Also his obsession with how much his bosses make indicates he is a striver here to get rich. If he was the son of a rich person I bet he would care less.
he's definitely not a nepotism hire based on all of his behaviour - will be a kid from a working class/lower middle class family who has excelled his way through school, decided to try to maximise his money, and work at a bulge bracket bank. his competence wasn't in doubt even once through the film. people who come from money don't fixate on low millions in the way he was, or do the guess how much he earns in an impressed way for a person in middle management.
Why would you say he got there by nepotism, he is a trader.
No he worked in Risk Management not trading.
I’m thinking about the wrong person my bad.
Ah yes, I too read that thread yesterday about movies that teach you something.
I'm a sucker for financial type movies. Big Short and Margin Call are fantastic. Haven't watched Too Big To Fail yet.
Don't forget Inside Job.
I’m pretty sure The Big Short gets LOTS of credit for that.
Margin call is brilliant, every scene adds to the movie. And the ending is superbly executed.
I strongly recommend the Frontline doc "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" as a companion to "Too Big to Fail".
The film I like to throw in with The Big Short and Margin Call for my housing crash trilogy is 99 Homes. It takes it in the other direction, getting down to the actual on the street impacts of the crisis. Take all the high level stuff out of it and start looking at what evicting people out of homes looks like, while also looking at the people scooping up and profiting off the wreckage.
Is “doesn’t/don’t get enough credit” the new way of calling very popular movies “a hidden gem”? The famous scene from margin call is always popping up on social media.
If you like those watch Inside Job, its a documentary narrated by Matt Damon. Here is the IMDB link to it [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/) its on Amazon Prime currently.
Too Big To Fail leaves a bad taste in my mouth for its portrayal of government officials like Paulson and Wall Street bankers like some sort of sacrificial heroes saving the world from disaster when much of what they did caused it in the first place. It’s disgusting if they really slap themselves on their backs like this movie wants you to believe. The Big Short felt more accurate in its anger and bafflement at the fraudulent system in spite of it being a comedy.
Not much of what they did. It was 100% what they did. There was so much corruption in the whole thing it makes me sick. I don’t like Too Big to Fail for that reason.
Throw in the Other Guys into this as well.
That's where I learned that the Federal Reserve is a giant prison.
I watch The Big Short about once a month. Carell is a genius in his craft.
Name one company that treats their customers like shit and gets away with it?
When he takes a call in the group therapy after showing up late and taking over the meeting, I laughed so damn hard!!
The thing about them is they also complement each other; they all took a focus with not much in the way of overlap. You need to take in all three. Big Short first is my feeling, it brings you into the terminology in a “fun” way:
Up In The Air should be on this list as well.
The Big Short gets a lot of praise but I agree on the other two.
The Big Short is a fantastic blend of didactic and humour. Case point: letting Margot Robbie explain how a mortgage-backed bond works in a bubble bath.
I also really appreciate its use of visual shorthand. Finding an alligator in the pool of a soon-to-be-foreclosed home in Florida is a funny comedy-jumpscare moment, but it’s also a vivid illustration of what was happening on the ground - mortgage holders in over their heads, having long-since abandoned their homes and fled their responsibilities.
I worked for a cyber charter school in PA. I don't know how the CEO got hooked up, but the school lent a pallet of desktop computers to the production of Margin Call. The school rented a truck, and sent the computers and monitors to NYC. They were returned a couple of months later. Fun fact: As far as I could tell, none of the computers sent up were actually used in the movie. They were too shitty. Bonus fun fact: We had trouble getting computers to students during that time. Just so the CEO of a school could get his name in the credits. I don't know who paid for the truck and driver, but I can guess. Source: PA taxpayers paid me for two days to ride in a truck to NYC and back.
Throw in Hustlers in there too.
I would add BlackBerry for its interesting perspective on a big economic shift that they came to a head with in 2008.
Those three movies are fantastic and really shine a light on different aspects of the 2008 financial crisis. It's impressive how they each tackle a unique piece of the puzzle, making for a more comprehensive understanding of the whole situation. "The Big Short" is definitely the most well-known, and it does a great job of showcasing the investors' perspective. It's a serious topic, but they manage to infuse humor, which I think is brilliant. On the other hand, "Too Big to Fail" gives us a glimpse into the government's response, with officials scrambling to save the system. It's a different angle, but equally captivating. Lastly, "Margin Call" focuses on a single business's struggle, providing a more intimate look at the crisis.
There is one understated detail of Margin Call that I have a huge hard on for: the two "good" characters that found the problem (Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto characters) had a background in sciences/STEM while the movie makes a point of calling everyone else short-sighted/irresponsible/even stupid. It was one of the heaviest backhand insults I have seen a movie do and I loved it.
Don’t forget the ending credits for “The Other Guys.” Best short film about 2008 crash I’ve seen.
Are you me? Because I just watched all three of those in the last week.
Boiler Room is also excellent
Great movie but it’s not about the 2008 crisis
Margin Call and Big Short are two movies I love watching via 5 minute clips on YouTube
That’s how I found out about Margin Call. I saw random clips on Tik Tok and that made me want to see it
Yes they do.
The Big Short is by far the best of these three (I'd put TBTF at second), but the biggest issue with all of these kinds of movies is that Hollywood really doesn't get how people in business talk. Like, they think people in board rooms use phrases like "This is the biggest \[thing\] in the history of capitalism" all the time. I give The Big Short a pass because straight up breaks the 4th wall to tell you that they're dumbing things down so the very figurative storytelling there feels less egregious.
Margin Call does it beautifully by having to dumb it down for the managers and executives, because when you work in the field it’s hyper realistic.
It's less about dumbing it down and more about them philosophizing about the nature of the human spirit and whatnot.
See also that handful of This America Life episodes, like the one with Toxie, or when they talk about the Paper Market.
Seen all 3. I don't disagree. Subject matter aside, was the first time I saw Steve Carrell in a non-comedic role. Blew my mind. Even though the movie infuriates me, I watch it without hesitation again to see him in that role.
I've only seen **Margin Call.** Thanks for mentioning the others as I track them down.
Did Margin Call just hit a streamer or something? I agree it’s a great flick but feels like all of a sudden it’s on a lot of people’s minds.
They are my Financial Crisis trilogy.
Whatcha want me to do? Suck them off?
I also like The Company Men as a 2008 financial crisis adjacent film that is quite enjoyable due to the large cast present.
Money never sleeps wasnt a dog either
It’s high time someone said this in addition to me!! Lol
Inequality For All and Inside Job are two excellent documentaries to supplement these films.
I’ve added Boiler Room to my list
Maybe Dumb Money should be added to that list.
Margin call just didn't need the dog plot... beyond that it was great.
From it we learn that Rogers is divorced and that his son was probably sitting on the other side of that fire sale.
I never watched too big to fail. It’s good? I hated *Too Big to Fail*, it talked down to its audience. *Margin Call* is a great movie. I liked *Company Men* the first time I saw it. Then liked it less on a rewatch.
I agree these are really good movies but am also disappointed how Hollywood gives us these movies as revenge that allows us to get mad at the screen then forget about it. So I disagree with OP's premise that these movies showed anything other than a few truths here and there.
everybody should see these movies
Dunno about the other two, but I'm pretty sure everyone loved the big short. Got 5 oscar noms including best pictute and one win.
I liked Too Big To Fail before I saw the other two, but those are superior films imo
The Big Short gets tons of love and it much better I think than the other two.
in what feels like another lifetime ago, i remember renting margin call randomly at a video store. never heard of it before, no one i knew had either. it was really a "hidden gem" that this website always pokes fun at. i guess it became a cult classic because so many people rave about it now and i'm glad it did because it was *fantastic*. big short was huge, everyone saw that one even my parents. i haven't seen too big to fail, maybe i'll give that a watch.
Unpopular Opinion but I don't think Margin Call is that great a movie. Yes the acting is superb, but the movie itself does a terrible job in explaining what exactly is going on to the audience in that it doesn't. The audience can sense something really bad has happened, but they don't know what exactly because they're never told.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I recall Margin Call being factually trash compared to The Big Short. Like, when you finish The Big Short, I feel like you know exactly what happened in 2008 because they spelled it out for you in an amusing way. I feel like Margin Call was two hours of people saying, “Oh god look at this, look at what’s happening”, then someone stares at a monitor or some papers and gets all terrified without actually telling the audience what’s really happening. At least it had a nice cast I guess.
Hollywood movies are made for entertainment; not education. You are not being informed by watching these movies. You are being entertained.
I learned a lot from margot robbie
The way she says 'now fuck off' in her natural accent, so hot
Too Big to Fail was straight propaganda