When depressed, let's watch a movie about the beginning of the collapse of the economy in 2008! Right? How about that to lift one's spirit! "Margin Call" is basically a 24 hour look at Lehman Brothers Bank and its fail in a spiral pretty much unparalleled in economic history to that point. ("To that point" is relevant because who the fuck knows what is going to happen to rival that economic failure in the months to come. Just saying....)
The premise of the movie is simple: employees at a large, highly capitalized bank get laid off and one of them had an inkling of how deeply leveraged the bank was. That guy left notes about that leveraged position and another person found those notes, and yada, yada, so it goes. It gets chased up to the owners who pretend to be shocked but who sort of knew it was happening all along. Keep in mind that this was happening in 2008 and banks were selling, reselling and re-reselling home mortgages as quickly as they could, just to make money. In truth, they were selling crap. They were selling mortgages for less than the house was worth and they (the banks) were selling them over and over for small percentages to other banks and lending companies with no guarantees and finally that scam collapsed. That's how Lehman Brothers died.
OK, I digressed. There is a bit of suspense here, waiting for the dick-head owners to figure out how to make the most money in one day before the Stock Market knows they are fucked, and for the already fired employees to figure out how to get the biggest parachutes when they leave and for the viewing audience to feel some sort of resolution of all of it. Hell, we lived through that Great Recession nightmare, we want to see retribution!
But that doesn't happen. Nevertheless, it's a good movie and worth watching. On that same note, in case you are interested in how the Great Recession came to be and all that financial stuff, read "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis. It's written in laymen terms but does a good job explaining the global mortgage crisis, how people made tons of money off of those mortgages and how it led to the 2008 fail of banks and stock brokerage houses.
But back to the movie: it's good. Good characters, good actors, a solid film. It won't make you happy but since it doesn't have Trump in it, it won't make you sad either. And you might learn something. Or not. Or just go watch "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" which is so much more uplifting and not sad at all. And also free on Netflix.
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