Margin Call (2011): Marginally Interesting

Hollywood is never far behind real life.  The 2008 Wall Street financial crisis that led us and the world  into the recession and the ongoing mess in which  we’re still mucking about has to be fodder for films. There’ve been some good documentaries already, such as Inside Job (2010). But a bigger challenge seems to be translating these events into a gripping drama or thriller that can catch us up and pull us inside the story.  Until now, there’ve been just a handful of attempts. We’ve had Up in the Air (2009) which sort-of reflected the crassness of corporate downsizing; Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), which, despite (or because of) Michael Douglas, fetched yawns from the few who saw it; Company Men (2011), which nobody saw, despite  a great cast; and Too Big to Fail (2011),  a made for HBO movie.

Now comes Margin Call, which is set in a Lehman Brothers-ish investment banking firm just as the realization dawns that the bottom is about to fall out. The film stars Jeremy Irons as the aloof head of the company, Demi Moore and Simon Baker as ambitious risk analysts who got it very wrong, and Kevin Spacey as the head of a trading team buying and selling  $billions in mortgage backed securities. The idea is that the company can make, and has made, a gazillion dollars via leveraging these debt instruments, but that this is a pretty risky bet, dependent on these securities maintaining their largely fictional value.   A running joke in the picture is that only the geeks understand what these “instruments” really are or how they work. Upper management doesn’t have a clue. “I don’t get any of this stuff” they each say;  but oh do they enjoy those mega-profits.  

The drama occurs when a couple of analysts (Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto)  notice a glitch in the risk evaluation formula which suggests that the firm has gone over the limit, and is about to crash. What to do? Can it be fixed? Can it be handled? Can we unload our cartloads of  toxic securities to other firms before they realize that the stuff is radioactive? Can we stay in business if our trading partners discover we’ve intentionally sold them crap? Is it ethical to do this? What effect will our bad decisions have on ordinary people (i.e. non-bankers) out there in the U.S.? Do we have a responsibility to others? (Actually, those last three questions never really get raised in or by this film, to its discredit.)

First time writer/director J.C. Chandor does a pretty nice job building tension throughout the movie, which takes place entirely within the company and almost entirely within its office building. This insularity gives the whole enterprise a claustrophobic feel which enhances the tension, to the point where some have called Margin Call a “thriller”.  I wouldn’t go that far, but I see their point. On the other hand the dialogue is dull as paint, notwithstanding some fine acting by most of the ensemble, particularly notable given the  mediocre material.

Kevin Spacey is especially fine, and his character, Sam Rogers, is apparently designed to be the sympathetic protagonist. You almost feel for Sam, until you remember that he’s just another sleazeball banker, that the laying off of scores of his colleagues doesn’t faze him,  and that he could care less about the effect  of his company’s feckless, irresponsibility on his fellow citizens. Only two things really touch him in this whole scenario: He has qualms about selling bad assets to traders at other banks, although those reservations arise primarily from a realization that doing this could destroy his reputation, rather than from any moral principal; and he is sad that his dying pooch has to be euthanized.

Margin Call’s merit is that it gives us a revealing peek at life inside the bubble of privilege that is Wall Street investment banking, where money is the be-all and end-all, and where the prevailing view seems to be that the general public are unsophisticated, worthless peons. From their highrise offices in Manhattan, they literally look down on the rest of America (if they bother to look at all).  There is no sense of responsibility to the folks whose money these guys are playing with. Indeed, the financial “products” being packaging and traded are more conceptual than real to them. (Their own exalted salaries and benefits are real enough though.)

But I guess my gripe is that the movie doesn’t take a stand. It doesn’t educate. It provides no context and adds little or nothing to our understanding about what actually happened and why.  

Still, Margin Call is entertaining enough to hold one’s interest.  And my take seems to be the minority viewpoint.

Still in selected theaters; available until 12/26/2011 on Xfinity (Comcast) OnDemand, and on DVD/Blueray from Netflix in late December.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011): Blistering Barnacles!

This is the much anticipated nostalgia-adventure motion-capture-animation extravaganza from a pair of superstar producers: StevenSpielberg (Jaws, E.T., Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) and PeterJackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong). Spielberg is the director on this project. Tintin the movie derives from the 23 volume comic book adventure series by the Belgian illustrator Herge, about the "boy reporter" Tintin, who, along with his dog Snowy, has adventures and solves mysteries. The Tintin books, most of which were written between 1930 and 1960, are generally set in the 1930's and 40’s, and feature glorious artwork and lots of globetrotting travel to exotic locales via conveyances of the day, such as trains, steamers and aeroplanes.

Tintin the movie is derived/adapted from the 11^th book in the series: The Secret of the Unicorn (1943), about the search for a hidden treasure. The look of this film truly captures the period nostalgia, the remarkable color palette, and the humor/adventure tone of Herge’s  books. If you enjoyed the books, you'll want to check out the movie.

This film reminded me a lot of Spielberg's Indiana Jones franchise, particularly the first of those pictures: Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s an affectionate homage to bygone adventure stories, with a blend of non-stop, Perils of Pauline action and exotic, drolly humorous characters and villains. There's Cap'n Haddock, an alcohol addicted seafarer, living with a family curse; Red Rackham, a shrewd and colorful pirate, and his 20^th century descendant, the scheming Ivanovich Sakharine; and two ridiculous detectives,  Thomson and Thompson, haughty and mutually blockheaded. There's treasure to be got, and hidden parchment clues to be found and fought over.

Like Indiana Jones, Tintin is plucky, smart, and ludicrously resourceful, yet often overlooks  important clues and jumps to mistaken conclusions, which leaves us, by turns, amused and exasperated. Unlike Indy, however, the protagonist-hero of this adventure has little personality, and is invariably far less interesting than the rest of the animated ensemble.  Snowy, for one, has more personality than Tin Tin - imagine Nick and Nora Charles' Asta on steroids. And Haddock steals every scene he’s in.

The true star of Tintin, however, and the reason to see the movie (unless you've got a 12 year old in tow), is the eye-popping detail and realism of the animation. The use of 3-D techniques is sophisticated and enhances our appreciation, without calling attention to itself. The rendering of the physical environment - a roiling sea, sahara dunes, clothing, skin, etc. - is fantastic. The action sequences have a physical reality to them that CGI effects in live action pictures often lack. Yet, thankfully, it always feels like an animation - it edges closer, but does not attempt cross that (increasingly notional) line separating the "real" world from the cartoon world.

The picture is not dull; it is pure plot-driven action-adventure, from the opening frame to the end. Given the Spielberg - Jackson collaboration, neither the galloping story line nor the remarkable look and feel is surprising. What is surprising, and disappointing, is the lack of heart in this film. This is very much a "comic book" movie (in the pejorative sense), despite its splendid trappings. But it’s a fun ride while it lasts.

In general release in the UK and parts of Europe; opening in the U.S. on December 21, 2011.

A Time For Drunken Horses (2000): Beautiful, Heartbreaking Gem

Wow! This independent Iranian film, only  80 minutes in length totally knocked me out. Put this on your list and see this movie. You’ll thank me.

A Time for Drunken Horses is the first feature film of the Kurdish Iranian writer/director, Bahman Gohbadi.  The movie put Gohbadi on the cinematic map, winning prizes at ten international film festivals, including Cannes; and he is now recognized as one of the region’s greatest directors. He has made four features since then, the most recent of which, No One knows About Persian Cats (2009), will be reviewed in this space in short order. (That picture resulted in Gohbadi’s exile from Iran, and the arrest of several other members of the company. )

Iran has always had a flourishing film industry, although Islamist laws, particularly restrictions having to do with portrayal of women, and, of course, laws criminalizing criticism of the government,  have made certain kinds of films difficult to produce. One way creative filmmakers have tried to sidestep these limitations is to center their stories on the travails of young kids. The director Majid Majidi has excelled at this with many terrific pictures, including  Children of Heaven (2007), The Color of Paradise (1999) and The Song of Sparrows, (2008).

A Time for Drunken Horses is in this tradition, with Ghobadi also nodding to Italian neorealist films, such as Germany: Year Zero (1948) and The Bicycle Thief (1948). Shot in a documentary style, Drunken Horses is about a family of Kurdish children living in Iran, a few kilometers from the Iraqi border. They live in a tiny village situated in a harsh, yet stunningly beautiful, mountainous landscape – lustrously captured by cinematographer,  Saed Nikzat. Mom died some time ago, and early on, the kids learn that Dad, a smuggler (whom we never meet) has been killed at the border. It falls to the eldest son, Ayoub, to hold the family together.  Ayoub is perhaps 12 years old, just a boy really, although in the harsh Kurdistan outback he is expected to “man up” at an early age  – and one of the wonders of this touching film is to watch this boy’s  earnest struggle to shoulder his new responsibilities.

Those responsibilities include providing sustenence for himself and his siblings (an older and a younger sister, and a younger, invalid brother). Early on, Ayoub also learns that his brother Madi’s condition is deteriorating and, unless Madi has an operation he will likely die within a month.  With the operation , he may have another year. Ayoub feels he must raise the money for his brother, and the rest of the film follows his and his sister Rojin's desperate attempts to do that.  Rojin bravely, movingly is prepared to sacrifice herself to aid poor Madi.

The kids playing these characters are Iranian Kurdish kids. Amateurs all, they are brilliantly believable, sincere, and beautiful. The siblings are kind and sweet in their feelings and care for Madi, who needs to take his medicine every few hours, needs to be carried almost everywhere, and gets weekly injections from the regional doctor.  Despite his handicap, Madi is accepted as is. He is family, and he is loved. There are a few adults to lend a little assistance - an uncle, the doctor – but mostly these children are on their own in an unforgiving,  but physically stunning world.

Their world is a primitive place. We see no phones, no TVs, no laptops, no cars to speak of. Smuggling seems to be one of the principal industries, and this is carried out by mule caravans. The caravans are dangerous; there is always the possibility of ambush from the government or from bandits. The weather over the mountain passes is so harsh, the smugglers add alcohol to the mules’ drinking water to make them more tractable.  In one of the movie’s most dramatic moments, the inebriated pack animals panic during an ambush with near disastrous results.

A Time For Drunken Horses gives the viewer a glimpse of real people in a world totally unlike our own. It is not a happy film, but it is a fascinating and compelling one – and very, very human. 

A warning though: this picture will stay with you. (In a good way.)

Available on DVD and Netflix streaming.