Retrospective Film Review

Margin Call (2011) • 15 Years Later — absorbing exploration of greed and moral decay wears thin

Follows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.

Margin Call begins with an act of controlled brutality, where corporate-speak and quiet office environments underscore the cruelty on display. Word has filtered through the film’s office setting — a Wall Street investment bank — about a slew of incoming firings. Workers hunker down in their figurative forts, crouched over their workstations, silently praying that the all-important woman with her all-important clipboard doesn’t call their name. She’s the bearer of bad news, but she too could be excised down the line. Everyone’s expendable, even if they do good work. As some workers escape this death knell and others sadly shuffle out of the place that lent structure — and maybe even meaning — to their lives, it’s hard not to feel as though these decisions are utterly arbitrary.