Margin Call

Margin Call is a drama set inside a Wall Street investment bank during a single night at the start of the 2008 financial crisis. When a round of layoffs costs risk analyst Eric Dale his job, he hands his unfinished work to a young colleague, Peter Sullivan. Looking at the files after hours, Peter finds that the firm's holdings are far more dangerous than anyone has admitted, and that the losses could destroy the bank. He alerts his superiors, and as the night goes on the news travels upward through the ranks until the company's chief executive gathers the senior staff to decide how to react.

J.C. Chandor wrote and directed the film, his first feature, followed by All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier and Kraven the Hunter. Kevin Spacey plays Sam Rogers, with Zachary Quinto as Peter Sullivan, Paul Bettany as Will Emerson, Jeremy Irons as John Tuld and Simon Baker and Penn Badgley among the supporting roles. Quinto also produced alongside Robert Ogden Barnum and Neal Dodson.

Made for about four million dollars, the film returned roughly twenty million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from around 161,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 from a much smaller base of about two thousand. A critics' score of 7.2 from 166 reviews places it slightly above the audience marks.