Margin Call (2011)

“Margin Call” is an end-of-America disaster flick with a Too Big Too Fail Weapon of Mass Destruction: Lehman Bros., slightly fictionalized. The harbinger of doom is a literal rocket scientist turned stock market shark (Zachary Quinto) who discovers his firm is a monstrous pig gorged on a diet of bad mortgages, and a heart attack just hit. His revelation sets off a chain bomb up the corporate ladder, from the floor manager (Kevin Spacey) to the CEO (Jeremy Irons at his most “Dead Rigner”ish). The reaction is not a heroic effort, but a scam far more sinister than anything in “Glengarry Glenn Ross,” another great F.U. to the Capitalism at All Costs mantra that fuels America. (GOP cheer!) A guy named J.C. Chandor makes his writing/directing debut, and he plays as if a decade-old pro as “Call” races like a thriller, and sports an acidic wit (no one in charge understands math). Quinto produced, and is a major star here, not just through massive-high-IQ acting, but because he lets the lions (Spacey, Irons and Demi Moore among them) rule the den. Sick twist: It all happened. A