“Margin Call” Trailer Comes Due

Just a couple of years removed from the global financial shenanigan, the trailer for "Margin Call" arrives, painting a bleak and sinister picture of how it is we got into that giant, pear-shaped mess.

Written and directed by first-timer J.C. Chandor, the film stars Zachary Quinto as a young man working at the firm from which Stanley Tucci is fired just before he has a chance to blow the lid on the precarious state of the economy. Also in the mix are Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons (as the evil overlord, natch), Penn Badgley, Simon Baker and Demi Moore (?).

The trailer looks good, though we find Irons' character being castigated for "selling something you know is worth nothing" a bit of an eye-roller--isn't that the whole point of selling something?

We're also a little nervous about how that title refers to the rest of the film, there were times when it seemed like they may have been talking around a margin call, but never address it directly. And as a former margins analyst, we always get annoyed and nervous when buying stock on margin is vilified--it's not all that different from buying a house with a mortgage.

 That said, it looks to be a far more mature and better-informed take on the economic meltdown than Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." But after seeing "Inside Job" and reading Michael Lewis' "The Big Short," what more could there be to say on the subject.

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