When I first saw J. C. Chandor's debut feature Margin Call (2010), I was deeply impressed by the film's script, direction and restraint, and also struck by the fact that the film seemed almost classical in its construction, as if it harkened back to the analogue era of The Birds (1963) in the precision of its shot setups and editorial construction. Along with Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011), it's the finest work I've seen from anyone in quite some time — all the more impressive because, aside from a long apprenticeship as an actor, still photographer and director of short films and documentaries, Margin Call is Chandor's first fully-realized feature film, despite the fact that he tried to get an earlier project off the ground (see below), only to have inancing evaporate at the last minute.

Margin Call documents the frenetic activity at a never-named brokerage firm on the night that the 2008 stock market collapse really took hold. The film is triggered by the firing of a longtime stock analyst, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci, in a typically immaculate, world-weary performance), who, in his last hours at the irm, discovers that the company is deeply over-leveraged in the derivatives market. As he is being ushered out of the building, Dale passes a flash drive with his findings on to the young Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) with a solemn warning.