The two best films opening this weekend are Sean Durkin‘s Martha Marcy May Marlene and J.C. Chandor‘s Margin Call. The mob will be pouring into Paranormal Activity 3, of course. But Margin Call is the movie of the moment if the Occupy movement means anything to you.
It’s basically a 24-hour pressure-cooker piece about top analysts and brass at a Lehman Brothers-like outfit getting wind of the impending 2008 financial collapse, and about the various players deciding whether to make a clean breast of it, or sell off assets while the rest of the world is still in the dark.
Here’s what I wrote after seeing it at last January’s Sundance Film Festival: “Margin Call is a moderately engaging Wall Street drama — I’m giving it a 7.5 — that uses reasonably well-sketched characters in a brokerage firm to dramatize the 2008 meltdown. It’s a decently made film with one especially riveting boardroom scene, but without much snap or tension overall, and it radiates a fair amount of gloom.
“It provides solid, workmanlike performances from Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci. Jeremy Irons is the standout as the ruthless top dog.”
Yes, I called it “moderately engaging.” But the Occupy movement has given this above-average drama an extra dimension. So much so that I’m thinking of paying to see it this weekend. Paying!