#i'm sensing you may be the slightest bit perturbed

[getmemymicroscope]

I think I much preferred The Big Short, partially because of star-cast (don't get me wrong, the cast here in general is pretty awesome), partially because it showed people with maybe some sort of moral compass (a few; though, in retrospect, that may have been pretty unrealistic - but still, it gives a little, very little, hope for humanity), and partially, I guess, because it tried to make the story more mass-friendly.

The Big Short broke down all these weird terms they used, using guest stars and literally writing out definitions and what-not. And it was, in that sense, a more fun movie: even if you knew how it was going to end, because they made it fun.

Margin Call made no qualms about trying to be fun. Which isn't a bad thing, mind you - this was not a fun thing, or a fun time, and they were very real (or so I assume). Which is fine, and makes for a great movie - it's just not as fun of a Sunday watch/pick-me-up. In fact, it really isn't a pick-me-up at all, but then, that was never the goal.

The movie starts with a bunch of people getting laid off, and then it tracks the next 24 hours as things just get worse-and-worse. The very beginnings of the financial crisis. Very real. Where it really falls behind The Big Short (which released 4 years after this) - this movie actually released about 18 months after The Big Short book did, but I'm pretty sure The Big Short (which I've never read) was probably a bit less guest star-studded - is that Margin Call doesn't have time to fully explain the terms to you. Sure, they have a couple of characters who pretty much say "dumb it down for me" when requesting an explanation of something, but the ensuing result really isn't very dumbed-down. And with the movie starting where it does, you pretty much have to pick it up on the fly - and pick it up immediately.

The other thing this movie really does a good job of showing: the cost of business, if you will. The corporation, obviously, is entirely heartless. But from the get-go, you start learning that almost everyone within the corporation is equally heartless. In fact, the only real exceptions (because they have a quarter-of-a-heart; no one is truly empathetic, or shows really the slightest humanity until they're in trouble) may be Stanley Tucci, fired very early on, and maybe, just maybe, Penn Badgley, who ironically spends most of the movie being entirely heartless. In fact, he's not really truly full-of-heart, even with him at one point asking about "the normal people" (before Paul Bettany goes on a rant about them), it seems like mostly he's just worried about losing his job.

Spacey - yeah, I know - appears to show some reservations early on, but then he completely shifts by the end because he needs money, apparently. Zachary Quinto, too, goes from "what is right?" to taking a promotion. Demi Moore pays the price, in the end - not because she suddenly developed some empathy or humanity (she didn't), but because they needed a "fall guy." Simon Baker and Jeremy Irons are asshats, thru-and-thru.

I think there are two very telling scenes about the 'big guys' and their disconnect from everyone else (and, with that, their entire lack of heart and exactly why all these guys are complete asshats). The first, very early on, is when everyone is getting laid off and they cut to Spacey, who is crying because his dog is dying (sad, admittedly) but doesn't seem even slightly perturbed that almost his entire floor has been laid off. And not just laid off, but escorted out of the building by security in front of everyone else. He then manages to walk out and given an entire speech about "a lot of your competition for promotion is no longer with the company."

The second is near the end. After a successful sell-off, Baker walks in and tells Spacey "hey, we're laying off a bunch of people who just did what we needed, starting right now." Spacey storms off to meet with Irons - who is chillaxing in a restaurant apparently atop their building, calmly eating a meal in an otherwise empty room. Spacey threatens to quit, Irons asks him to stay and gives some stupid speech about "this always happens/we're not bad," and then Spacey is like "fuck it, I'll stay because I need money." And that's it. He leaves, paycheck guaranteed.

I think we're supposed to feel for Spacey, based on the very ending of the movie, but really, he's just as much a sell-out and part of the problem as everyone else. I don't think you really walk out thinking of anyone as a 'hero' or even really a 'human.' They're all just willing cogs in a heartless, anti-human machine where the entire goal is to make sure that the company, and the head asshats in charge, make money, humanity be damned.

It's pretty damning about the thought-process of such people in charge of such corporations - see, again, Bettany's monologue about the "normal people" (side-note: he may have a point about some of those people) - and, even more so, it's sad (and yet, completely unsurprising) that nothing has changed in the 14 years since the crisis/11 years since this movie released.

Irons, I think, has this whole thing about "money is just paper," which is funny, because if you were like "it's just paper, stop ruining the world and people's lives so you can have a bit more that you don't need," the character would obviously tell you to fuck off and then go ruin more lives just because he can.

Humanity - it isn't difficult, but clearly a lot of people have no interest in having any of it. No matter what the long-term cost to people, or the planet.

I knew, sort of, what I was getting into when I turned this on, but damn ... it definitely did not make for a pleasant, light-hearted Sunday viewing.